By John W. Lillpop

Public figures who engage in politically incorrect speech involving race are usually condemned as bigoted, anti-American racists, or worse.

Take the case of radio satirist Don Imus. A little more than a year ago, the I-Man ran afoul of the PC language police by referring to black women who play basketball for Rutgers as “nappy headed hos.”

For this harmless sin, Imus was banished from the airwaves and denied his livelihood for six full months. Reverend Al Sharpton was among those who goaded Imus’ employers into throwing the famous and talented cowboy-comic under the bus.

In 2006, Virginia Senator George Allen (R-VA) sought reelection and seemed a good bet to succeed until his use of the “macaca” word reverberated throughout the wild world of political correctness. .

Naturally, Allen was universally vilified, ostracized, and cursed far and wide for being a bigoted racist.

The pummeling of Senator Allen was most curious since nobody, including Senator Allen, had the vaguest notion what “macaca” meant.

However, George Allen was a white Republican, and often that is more than enough justification to “cut his nuts off,” to paraphrase a black luminary who has been in the news a lot lately.

Speaking of which, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, alleged spiritual leader of black folk worldwide, has made headlines again:

FOX is reporting that, in addition to threatening Barack Obama’s manhood with a dull switchblade knife, Reverend Jackson dropped an “N” bomb on the inexperienced Marxist Jihadist from Illinois.

And what was the reaction from Reverend Al Sharpton?

A clarion call to shut down New York City? A demand that Reverend Jackson resign as leader of the Rainbow Coalition and live in abject poverty until called home by Satan?

None of the above!

Saying he was “very disappointed” with Reverend Jackson, Sharpton proceeded to sugar coat Jackson’s racist tirade by stating, “I think this certainly does not reflect the Reverend Jackson that we all know and love.”

WCBS http://wcbstv.com/local/sharpton.jackson.nword.2.773359.html

Which leads to the Big Question: Just how offensive is the “N” word?

The answer: It all depends on your race and political affiliation!