By now we are all probably aware of the media flash-mob that has erupted over presidential candidate Rick Perry’s badly named hunting ranch leased plot near Haskell, Texas. There’s quite a story in the New York Times about it here.
Seeing the word used today, it reminded me of an odd experience in west Texas earlier this year where I heard the term used before. I had forgotten all about it until today. I hadn’t intended to write a story on this at all, but curiosity about that event led me down an interesting set of rabbit holes, so I thought I’d share what I learned about this ugly and offensive term and how surprising the wide and varied use of it is.
In the spring, I was at a conference/tradeshow in Oklahoma and Dallas where I showed some of our weather equipment. Reader may recall I blogged about the Japan earthquake and Tsunami while in a hotel room in Oklahoma City. The next week I was in Dallas. Shortly after the conference closed, I had the misfortune of driving along a stretch of lonely highway 82 between Dallas and Lubbock. I had to go through Lubbock because I needed to go to Muleshoe, TX, where there was an unsurveyed USHCN station I wanted to add to the surfacestations.org station database, and Muleshoe (only to discover later that Juan Slayton had added it already) was so that had to be my route so I could connect to Highway 388 which goes NW from Lubbock to Muleshoe, and then on to Fort Sumner NM where I wanted to verify a Google street view on an MMTS. My GPS, as GPS’s sometimes do had me going on some backroads, including Munday, TX which I thought had an odd name and I got turned around for a bit and found myself headed south on 277 to Haskell. Got that solved and headed west on 222 to connect to 82.
I found myself in a pickle when I reached Guthrie, TX because I was getting low on gas, and I hadn’t seen any gas stations. From the 82 bypass around Guthrie I spotted what looked to be a gas station, so I double back, took the exit and went into town. It was a gas station alright, long since closed and there was nothing else in town. I was afraid I’d find myself stranded in Guthrie. I was struck by the fact that I was in the middle of one of the biggest oil producing states, and there was not a drop of gasoline to be found. There was no cell service that would support web browsing on my phone either, so I couldn’t search for one.
So I drove around just a bit in Guthrie, until I spotted somebody I could ask. It was like a ghost town, but I finally found someone (actually they found me because parked and waited and he rode by on a bike) and I flagged the guy down and asked where I might find some gas. He thought a moment and said “There’s no gas here, nearest is either Ralls or Crosbyton”. I asked where those towns were and he said: “on 82 (pointing west) out past the niggerheads, and then past Dickens”. I said “What? Niggerhead? Is that a town? and he looked at me like I was from another planet (I didn’t tell him I was from California) and he said “no that’s the hills, you’ll see em, and then ya go through Dickens, and Crosbyton, and then Ralls. One of ‘em should have gas.”
I did find gas in Crosbyton, after driving west on 82 through the hills the man described which you can see here in Google maps.
The term “niggerheads” was puzzling and odd, but I figured it was just some local colloquialism, and I didn’t give it another thought…until today.
So after being bombarded with all the news stories about how offensive this term is, and noting that some of the same people doing reporting lambasting Perry over the name of a ranch called “niggerhead” have absolutely no trouble at all calling people like me and the readers of WUWT “deniers” (Think Progress, Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, among others) which is also an ugly and offensive term due to the connection to “holocaust deniers”.
So, I thought I’d see what I could find on it. I figured if it was some sort of local colloquial term when I heard it in Texas last spring, I’d find it in older books and maps.
So in my first Google search, amongst all the news stories about Perry, I found my first clue as to why I heard the term, in Wikipedia:
The term was once widely used for all sorts of things, including products such as soap and chewing tobacco, but most often for geographic features such as hills and rocks.[citation needed] In the U.S., more than hundred “Niggerheads” and other place names now considered racially offensive were changed in 1962 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but many local names remained unchanged.[1]
So that explained why the fellow I asked directions from used the term for the hills I’d drive through. The NYT article I cited above also mentions this.
I can understand how it is offensive, and I can certainly see removing it. But I think removing it is going to be a much bigger job than the bloodhounds in the mainstream media thinks. Just look at all the references to the word in science and engineering and geography:
================================================================
Nigger Head, an island in North Queensland, Australia
United States. Bureau of Fisheries – 1921 – Free Google eBook – Read
NIGGERHEAD GROUP. The shells of the niggerhead group distinguish themselves from all others of the Quadrula class by combining a … In buying mussels for button manufacture the price is often based upon the percentage of niggerheads.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen – 1911 – Free Google eBook – Read
One chamber casting (acting as a nigger head), is bolted centrally to the dry pipe in such a manner as to have the fingers … As the throttle is opened, steam is admitted through the dry pipe to the header which acts as a nigger head.
The vegetation of New Zealand – Page 157
books.google.com Leonard Cockayne – 1921 – 456 pages – Free Google eBook – Read
3- Niggerhead (Carex secta)-association. Here shock-headed masses of C. secta are dominant raised above the water on … Niggerhead -swamp contains many of the ordinary swamp-plants and many transitions occur between it and Phormium-
License my roving hands: poems and stories – Page 19
books.google.comJuanita Tobin – 2000 – 57 pages – Preview
NIGGERHEAD ROAD The squeaky, old doors have closed forever on a school, a drug store and train station with a telegraph office where matrimonial ads and baseball games were transmitted as well as business on the stock exchange and a …
International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Iron Workers – 1905 – Free Google eBook – Read
THE MAN ON THE NIGGER HEAD. His legs are poor, he can’t go aloft, In the “bull” gang he is dead; But should the boss throw a line across He is first to the ” nigger head.” He keeps the line coiled neat and trim, But I have often heard it…
In the Alaskan wilderness – Google Books Result
books.google.com/books?id=BHUtAAAAYAAJ…George Byron Gordon – 1917 – Alaska – 247 pages
This is what is called nigger- head and muskeg in the language of the North. … on any map of Alaska), and prepared to do all the portaging ourselves. …
Highway to Alaska
books.google.com Herbert Charles Lanks – 1944 – 200 pages – Snippet view
16 Niggerhead and Horse Camp Lakes The next day I decided to explore ahead on foot, for there was no one in camp who seemed to know the condition of the road. They said that the last vehicle had got through way back in April, …
The Pennsylvania barn: its origin, evolution, and distribution in … – Page 263
books.google.com Robert F. Ensminger – 2003 – 348 pages – Preview
The development of the nigger head in central Pennsylvania was examined under ” Tying Joints and Bent Raisings” (see … The emergence of the nigger head may also result from a simplification of the double tie beam, which is commonly …
Journal of conchology: Volume 11 – Page 214
books.google.com Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland – 1906 – Free Google eBook – Read
Moreover the growth of the shells is very slow, the time required for a “nigger- head” to reach a size of three … The standard is the “niggerhead.” In 1897 the market value of this species in Muscatine ranged from 40 to 62 cents per …
The mineral resources of New South Wales – Page 402
books.google.com Geological Survey of New South Wales, Edward Fisher Pittman – 1901 – 487 pages – Free Google eBook – Read
There is another peculiar form common on the field, known as a nigger head. These nigger heads are usually oval or spherical masses of more or less opal- impregnated, fine grained silica ; they are of all sizes from 1 lb. to 1 cwt.,
California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current … – Page 258
books.google.com Erwin G. Gudde, William Bright – 2004 – 460 pages – Preview
and Niggerhead Mountain [Los Angeles Co. ] (which probably reflect the now obsolete term “niggerhead” in the sense of … Note that the term “Niggerhead” in place names may refer not to the head of a Negro, but rather to a flanged drum …
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So clearly, the offensive term is well established in literature and placenames. It will take time and effort to remove it.
Remember the photo at the top of this story? Guess what the name of it was up until about a year ago.
Even politically correct California suffered (until recently) from a place called “Niggerhead Mountain” of which you can get an interactive map of right here at this link: http://californiamaps.org/place.php?county=Los+Angeles&feature=Niggerhead+Mountain
And while it still shows up in map databases, it too has recently been renamed:
History professor works to rename mountain in Los Angeles
Thanks to the work of a Moorpark College history professor, a Southern California mountain will be renamed to honor the man who first settled in the area and erase the original racial slur.
Good for him, it is the right thing to do. But it just goes to demonstrate that the current inhabitants of a place often get stuck with unfortunate names of the past, and that doesn’t necessarily make somebody who lives by that mountain in Los Angeles county a racist.
It also doesn’t make the people of Queensland, Australia, who have an island named “niggerhead”, racist. Wikipedia says:
Nigger Head is a small island in the Northern part of Shelburne Bay in far north Queensland, Australia about 30km North of Cape Grenville, Cape York Peninsula in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Queensland, Australia.[1] It is so named because it is an isolated coral outcrop; such outcrops were previously known as Niggerheads by British sailors.
And here it is, currently in the Australian Government Geoscience page:
I wonder if any Australian political candidates ever go fishing or diving near that island? Wow, wouldn’t that be a bombshell?
So clearly, with all the citations of “niggerhead” I found in books, maps, placenames, and professional journals, there’s a lot of work to do to erase the ugly and insensitive term. There’s also a lot of places where the term is used and there’s no outrage (yet).
In light of this, I think we all should cut Rick Perry some slack, because the one presidential candidate who would be the most offended by the term, Herman Cain, isn’t. From CBS News:
Cain said he is “done with that issue,” making the following comment in response to reporters’ questions: “Was I satisfied with Governor Perry’s explanation about the name of the ranch where he went hunting? And I said, ‘Yes I am. Next question.”
I suspect Perry told him some of the same things I learned about placenames and geography.
Now if we can just get those same reporters in the MSM to stop labeling skeptics with another ugly and offensive term “deniers” like Andy Revkin’s recent NYT story where he even goes so far as to promote a map, “A Map of Organized Climate Change Denial“, I and many others will feel far less offended.
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Note to commenters and moderators – I will NOT tolerate anything offensive related to this story in comments. All such responses will be deleted. – Anthony
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Gareth Phillips says:
October 4, 2011 at 9:37 am
“It’s interesting how many posters defend the use of this word on various pretexts. Hey! they are only words eh!. I wonder if they are just as happy to have the word “denier” used against them?”
I couldn’t care less if someone calls me a denier.
Making a fuss over a word just empowers the negativity associated with it. Stop letting it bother you and people will give up on trying to get a reaction out of you with it.
Gareth Phillips,
I am a denier according to the greenies. Their use of the word in that context says more about them than it says about me. I like that they say it, it defines them. Just as the word greenie, as I put it, says something about me too. It says I have contempt for people that put the earth before mankind… it says I dislike them… it says that I don’t identify with them, .. It says that they have made a religion of the earth,…it says that I think better of myself then I do them. All of which is true.
There is no convention that says that I should not be insulted and there is none that says you or anyone else should not be insulted rebuked or called out for whatever reason. That is the beauty of free speech.
Gareth you don’t have the right to not be offended. Consider yourself insulted for being such a infantile, weak and ineffectual advocate of the hoax of AGW.
Another use of the term “niggerhead” was for plants. In parts of western Texas it was used for a type of wildflower, and in the Midwest I heard it used to refer to a type of prickly black burr (larger than a beggar tick).
Several years ago either PETA or the Humane Society lobbied to have Catskill and some other —kills renamed because they promoted violence against animals. Yes, “kill” comes from the Dutch for a small creek or stream.
woodNfish says:
October 4, 2011 at 9:08 am
“Hey Anthony – it was not Rick Perry’s hunting lodge. He did not own it, he rented it. I think you should correct your post.”
REPLY: Added “leased plot” to make that clear – Anthony
“Deer lease” is the common term. It just means you purchased the right to hunt on someone else’s land and won’t get arrested for trespassing. Terms vary but often it’s a year-long lease and includes a designated place for a semi-permanent camp or lodge. It’s certainly not unique to Texas nor unique for hunting purposes.
Racial politics is destroying the West. No doubt the Squaw Lakes will soon be assigned politically correct names. And then there’s the Cleveland Indians. The Stanford Indians have already gone to the happy hunting grounds.
Another term in use to name lakes, etc. that some find offensive, albiet not racially disparaging, is Peckerhead.
“I wonder why some PC types haven’t gotten Grand Teton National Park renamed, or the Grand Tetons range renamed…
The name should be changed. From Wikipedia: The most common explanation is that “Grand Teton” means “large teat” in French …”
If you’ve ever been to Denver International Airport, you’ll understand why locals call it the “sow barn” or t.ts up.
We seem to very much be moving into an Orwellian world of “zero tolerance” and “political correctness” where years ago, context was everything. You could tell a racial joke using your own race or another, and everyone thought it was funny if the person telling it wasn’t doing so to offend, and if the person telling it wasn’t racist. Usually it was pretty easy to tell, and if you weren’t sure, you gave the person the benefit of the doubt until you were around them a bit more and knew. People would often laugh at a good hearted person telling an ‘off color’ joke, but shut down someone telling the same joke out of spite or racism. Now so many of those jokes would immediately offend, shock, cause a furor, get you fired, etc. no matter the spirit in which it’s told.
This attitude, that we can default to zero-tolerance, that we no longer have to think or discriminate (in the sense of discerning the difference) but just default to PC, is doing great harm to all of us. This is how six year olds wind up handcuffed by police and arrested because they had a temper tantrum at school. How we don’t have wars, but overseas contingency operations – and communication loses real meaning. One aspect of this I’ve never understood is how it’s ok and ‘free speech’ to use highly offensive obscenities, but utterly condemn these various non-PC words or phrases. As another poster said so well: “I am deeply offended by political correctness. Please rectify this immediately.”
Reminds me of the furor a few years ago over the term “black hole” – and how utterly shocked I was that anyone could mistake the term for a racially connoted one, particularly in the context used in this particular case.
Texas County Official Sees Race in Term ‘Black Hole’ – Politics …
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,380143,00.html – Similar
Jul 11, 2008 – “It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole,” Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said during the Monday meeting. …
And to destroy history because someone today might be offended at reading or hearing about what really occurred? (e.g., the efforts that are being made to change terms and names in literary classics such as Huckleberry Finn) That’s an absolute outrage, a travesty, an Orwellian nightmare.
Another example of the evolution of terms to be PC, is the hijinks over the years related to mental retardation with one word replacing another as each in turn became ‘offensive,’ even tho it’s common use began specifically because the ‘new’ term was not offensive and was replacing one that supposedly was. Heck if I recall the correct order, or feel like looking the issue up again to reconstruct, although I did so a few years ago for a post related to political correctness, but the terms moved from imbecile to moron to mongoloid (not all are) to down’s syndrome (not all are) to retarded to mentally handicapped to mentally challenged to developmentally delayed… I’m sure there were other terms in there that I’ve missed. Most recently in the USA we’ve been treated to our congress decreeing that the word retarded shall be removed from all federal documents – which, if I understood correctly, meant that we’re paying the cost to have all federal documents and regulations searched for the word, and re-issued with whichever proper ‘non-offensive’ term was deemed appropriate.
I’m offended at the gross waste of money. It would be one thing if they just ordered that anything new published would be with the replacement, but anyone who’s ever been involved in producing documents knows there’s a large expense involved in making “simple” after the fact revisions – let alone in the utter reams of federal documents that exist.
Other’s have mentioned the gross double standard some display where it’s fine for blacks to use the n-word, but not for whites. Insanity. Headlines in just the past week or so were about Whoopi Goldberb debating this very issue with Barbara Walters etc., on “The View.” It’s not the first time, and Whoopi feels it’s absolutely fine for blacks to use the term, but not whites. I’m every bit as offended hearing said by a black person as a white person – sorry, if I move to ‘african-american’ I’d have to also move to ‘england-american, irish-american, chinese-american, and so on. Only are these terms all too often incorrect because the person isn’t actually of that decent, or they’re a part of the American Melting Pot, etc. Worse, it’s also grossly counterproductive – we are AMERICANS, and it’s important that people view each other and themselves in a cohesive positive fashion rather than a race-baiting segregating negative fashion.
Actually, I’m a bit more offended when a black person uses the n-word than a white, both because of the double standard, and because I can’t for the life of me see why anyone would want to apply what is seen as such a negative term to themselves or their race. Yet when between individuals who know each other, and who don’t use a racially based double standard, then while using derogatory terms meant as a positive and received as such may not be the greatest thing psychologically, it is a matter context, just as the off-color jokes I’d mentioned earlier, now isn’t it?
Then there is that little thing called free speech, which means we ought to ban any talk of needing to be politically correct in speech. 😉
Paul Westhaver says:
October 4, 2011 at 10:07 am
Gareth Phillips,
I am a denier according to the greenies. Their use of the word in that context says more about them than it says about me. I like that they say it, it defines them. Just as the word greenie, as I put it, says something about me too. It says I have contempt for people that put the earth before mankind… it says I dislike them… it says that I don’t identify with them, .. It says that they have made a religion of the earth,…it says that I think better of myself then I do them. All of which is true.
There is no convention that says that I should not be insulted and there is none that says you or anyone else should not be insulted rebuked or called out for whatever reason. That is the beauty of free speech.
Gareth you don’t have the right to not be offended. Consider yourself insulted for being such a infantile, weak and ineffectual advocate of the hoax of AGW.
Gareth responds
Paul, I am also accused of being a denier by your “greenies” I just happen to be that rarest of creatures, a left wing European environmentalist who believes that climate science has been corrupted and as a result undermined the whole ecological movement. I am grateful for your ad hominem attack, as Mr.Churchill alluded, if no-one ever insults you or hates you, you have never stood up for anything you believe in.
I guess by your thinking no-one has the right to be offended by speech. I guess you would include the victims of the psychopaths who blew up the twin towers and those who laugh at the funerals of soldiers. I just happen to disagree and believe that words have power, especially when they are used in a careless way.
However I agree that the use of such terms says more about the person making the statement, than it does about the target of their ire. Hopefully you understand that while we may wear the badge of denier with honour, the use of the term by the climate Taliban is designed to associate you and I to the some of the most horrendous crimes ever perpetrated by human beings. It is a term used with malice, much the same way as racist terms. A young black man may wear the racist badge with honour in the same way as you wear the badge of denier, but I would suggest that no-one called you this in a bar, or indeed addressed the young black man in the terms used in this debate.
Well done, Anthony. It’s nice to see a bit of level-headed straight talk on this. The word is what it is, and it ain’t going away any time soon. Let’s all be more concerned about real discrimination and bigotry and less sensitive with hair triggers all over the language, looking for offense around every corner.
Personally I think a far bigger story concerning prejudice, offense and racial supremacism is the photos that have just surfaced of BHO appearing in Black Panthers rallies, marching in the streets with Black Panther leaders, a Black Panther Party endorsement that appeared on Obama’s official campaign website, the White House’ intervention in a DOJ investigation into Black Panther violation of election laws, and the visits of Black Panther leaders to the White House during BHO’s presidency. If we’re going to be concerned about racial supremacist connections in American politics, let’s look where there’s actual substance, not a name painted on a rock many years ago.
Press, it is a ‘press’ obsession (think: liberal arts degree with ‘communications’ as the major).
.
When I was littler, the term, if I recall correctly, wasn’t quite a zit but it was a small raised piece of skin with the top looking like a piece of soil. We used to pinch them off just like zits.
A true story from long ago to demonstate that you should perhaps just accept that shit happens.
The Niger is a river in Nigeria.
Nigeria was the largest African colony in the British Empire and became independent in 1960.
The event was treated with great seriousness by the BBC , who started the (I think 8 am ( but its a long time ago )radio news , then the most important news programme of the day except perhaps for the 6 p m news, with Jack De Manio ( what a wonderful man – I wonder how many U K readers remember him?) saying this as first item up:-
“Today is a very important day in the land of the Niger..” but alas , by a slip of the tongue, he pronounced the word as if it had 2 Gs and not 1.
V V Embarassing , but , though he afterward said that he had realised his error , he just went on with the piece and hoped nobody else noticed:but they did,boy did they notice!
>>Another use of the term “niggerhead” was for plants. In parts of western
>>Texas it was used for a type of wildflower,
And in Australia these plants are called blackboys:
http://bluegumpictures.com.au/images/medium/06/06_02796.jpg
Liberals say the term refers to an Aborigine with a spear, and it is offensive. I always thought that it was not a spear, and it was in fact an Aboriginal boast…. 😉
Just goes to show that the liberals can make a huge fuss and scandal about nothing, just to denigrate normality and replace it with their Orwellian Doublespeak.
.
In a post above, I said that if it had been me, I would have changed the name so as not to give offense to people who wouldn’t like the name. Just being courteous.
Turns out that is what the Perry family actually did. Here is what I just read in the NY Times of Oct. 3 (I guess I’m behind the times):
“…Mr. Perry’s campaign did not dispute that the slur was used as a name for the property, but in a statement it said the name was changed — painted out — soon after Mr. Perry’s father, Ray, joined the lease that gave him hunting rights about 30 years ago.”
That is exactly what Max Hugoson said, but I didn’t see a source until now. As Max says, this account may cause Perry to come out pretty good, and the Wash Post pretty bad — just another MSM smear attempt, like Dan Rather’s of many years ago, only easier to rebut.
As indicated by Pryor in the Youtube above, it’s used to reaffirm the black claim to victimhood; it says “We are the oppressed, who have major moral mojo over the oppressors”. And there are lots of subtleties in how it’s used in that general sense. You will notice that those blacks who explicitly renounce the victimhood ploy and shortcut to cheap moral status do not use the term, except to refer to those who have surrendered to the Great Society of professional losers.
To Garth the troll…
he said”I guess by your thinking no-one has the right to be offended by speech. I guess you would include the victims of the psychopaths who blew up the twin towers …..
No. You are stupid if you believe this. I don’t see how “rights” have anything to do with someone perceiving that they have had their feeling hurt…..People get offended if you pronounce their name wrong or any number of things.. Offense is what happens to the recipient. Be offended or not, it is up to you and….you don’t have the right NOT to be offended… Not the twisted logic you stated.
… and what does killing people and property destruction have to do with free speech….. oh right… to Garth the demogogue, they are the same thing.
Stick and stones may break my bones but names shall never hurt me.
The fuss about the name nigger only applies to the USA because of the historical baggage it accumulated there with the lack if respect accorded to African descended Americans.
Anywhere else it may mean simply black as from it’s Latin root. And so they don’t care about the word.
Wow, so many examples, it’s hard to choose the best!
I know,
Eenie meenie miney mo, catch …
er, well, just ANY of them will do!
Personally, I think the problem is that there are people who take offense when none is intended. They WANT to be offended. It gives them a worthless self righteous cause to defend. There is no reason to sympathize with these people. If we fixed all the current “offenses”, they’d have a new set tomorrow. There is no satisfying them. They have to have them, and they’d make them up if they don’t currently exist. With each “fix” they gain more power and traction. We shouldn’t go along with it.
I am not offended by the term “denier”. It is meaningless name calling. I actually think it is funny when they use that term, because it tells me more about them than they realize. I like markers in the system that give me an opportunity to see how others really are.
Acadia National park used to have two mts/hills now called the bubbles that used to be go by the name for the colloquial term for female mammary glands starting with B… Then there are the Tetons also named for the French word for female mammary glands….. I wonder when the feminsts will start hollering about the name of the Teton National Park.
Political correctness is such a total waste of valuable time.
Respectfully, where is the value from this? I just don’t see it…….
Also if you screw up falling a tree, at least here in Western Canada, the offending cut is known as a Dutchman. Don’t cut the holding wood or you’ve made a Dutchman and the tree can fall unpredictably. As a Dutchman I always thought this was amusing.
In a related story, the NCAA is trying to eliminate Indian names from all sports teams. The “Fighting Sioux” from North Dakota are not changing their name. I keep hoping one of the faux offended people promoting this will take questions on a radio show. I want to call up, tell them how much I dislike Indians, and congratulate them on their efforts to eliminate any reference to Native Americans in modern language.
I hope the host of the radio show is not hurt by the exploding heads.
There’s a reason this word is referred to as the N-word and isn’t commonly printed, even when not used as a slur. It is a horribly insulting word that evokes memories of a period when individuals were property of others. The word was use as a slur to dehumanize people in the worst sorts of ways. Although slavery ended 150 years ago, only forty years past, our country had laws on that relegated individuals to second class status based only on the color of their skin. Folks that lived through that era find the word extremely painful and have asked people not to use it (even if it’s not being used as a slur). Honoring their request isn’t “political correctness”, it’s just being decent.
I understand the purpose of Anthony’s article, and it’s clear the Perry article was a hit job by the Washington Post. That being said, I really fail to see the point in repeating the word over and over in the article and the comments when the point could be made without using the word over and over. As of 7 PM today, the n-word is on this page nearly a hundred times.
Think of what will happen if someone does an internet search on that word and WUWT pops up along with some pretty vile and despicable pages. Although it is not being used as a slur here, those on the other side of the issue won’t care about the distinction.