Dear George Capsis,
James Lincoln Collier’s piece shocked precisely because he used the word in one of the few contexts where using it matters: To illustrate the intent many have when issuing various & sundry complaints real and imagined against the President of the United States, Barack Obama.
It is not possible to engage in a rational dialogue with the 42% of the GOP who believe the president was born in Kenya and that a massive conspiracy was executed to hide that fact, unless you first boil Obama’s lifetime of educational and legislative accomplishments to that word or a substitute for that word which to those in the know means the exact same thing.
I was introduced to “that” word at age eight or nine in the restroom at Harcourt Elementary school in Indianapolis, Indiana about a half century ago, and I got over my reclaiming stage years ago. It’s an ugly word that I believe can never be reclaimed, so let’s just stop using it casually.
That doesn’t mean it can never be used, and it’s clear I’ve chosen not to use it even as I discuss it because you know what I am talking about without me having to say it. And that is kind of the point.
I believe it was used this time exactly as it was meant to, by a writer who understands what “that” word means.
Richard Bottoms
San Francisco, CA
