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Recently someone asked me what sort of people "qualified" as "white trash" given what passes for conventional wisdom in America. My response included such things as lower-income, undereducated whites with a preference for colloquial speech and occasionally, a proclivity toward racking up misdemeanor offenses. A healthy dose of low self-esteem generally helps, too. Indeed, as may seem obvious, it's much more about attitude and mindset than ethnic or genotypic qualities.

In as much as the above gives rise to subcultural niches, I don't have any problem admitting that I occasionally use the "n-word." That we've come to a point where I have to be concerned that using the word in a column might be edited down to "the n-word" is pretty absurd, in my view. I also don't have any problem admitting that I occasionally use the w, g, d, s, h and k-words (have fun figuring those out) when I find myself frustrated with the behavior of individuals who insist upon adhering to societally counter-productive, self-destructive and often offensive, irksome stereotypes.

Journalist Juan Williams versus gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg, for example. One is a black gentleman, the other, well... a quintessential specimen. I used an example of someone with whose politics I heartily disagree for the "gentleman," of course, lest I be accused of having a capacity for viewing only race-traitor, oreo conservative blacks as gentlemen. "Oreo" (used to describe blacks who act or think "white") is itself a racial epithet, but is largely excused because it is used by blacks to vilify other blacks. Why this doesn't count as racism -- why it isn't called "the o-word" -- is an example of our collective hypocrisy.

Leaving aside the bevy of activists and media continually perched like buzzards, waiting for an opportunity to foment or exacerbate racial tensions in the U.S., one would have to be comatose or taking the dirt nap to have missed the recent coverage of actor-director Mel Gibson's drunken, anti-Semitic tirade whilst being cited for driving under the influence of alcohol, or the more recent career suicide of comedian Michael Richards that involved extraordinarily derisive racial epithets hurled at two black hecklers during his stand-up routine.

While Richards' "performance" was abominable and his subsequent wild-eyed apology hollow, leading to the general consensus that we could stick the fork in him (as in "the bird is done"), many Americans and followers of this sort of thing (myself included) wondered what effect Gibson's escapades would have on the market viability of his new film "Apocalypto." Clearly, there were prominent figures in the media (or with access to it) who were thoroughly displeased with him and had no reservations apropos expressing same.

As important as such individuals may think they are, in the final analysis their opinions really don't count, illustrated by the fact that "Apocalypto" is a smash hit. While it's been relatively easy to observe stress in Gibson's face during the recent obligatory interviews in which the film is discussed, in those appearances Gibson has been candid and accepting of responsibility for his mistake; and a mistake it was, regardless of his true beliefs.

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