I recently came across someone writing that a book he was reading was “so old that it even uses the word ‘niggardly’ with no apparent shame.” I wondered why that would be a sign of age, and soon came across a Wikipedia page about how controversial the word is. Turns out that although it has absolutely nothing to do with the word “nigger”, a series of misunderstandings have now given it a “dangerous” reputation.
From the article:
On January 15, 1999, David Howard, a white aide to Anthony A. Williams, the black mayor of Washington, D.C., United States, used the word in reference to a budget. This apparently upset one of his black colleagues (identified by Howard as Marshall Brown), who incorrectly interpreted it as a racial slur and lodged a complaint. As a result, on January 25 Howard tendered his resignation, and Williams accepted it. […] another controversy erupted over the use of the word at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. At a February meeting of the Faculty Senate, a junior English major and vice chairwoman of the Black Student Union told the group how a professor teaching Chaucer had used the word […] She said the professor continued to use the word even after she told him that she was offended. “I was in tears, shaking,” she told the faculty. “It’s not up to the rest of the class to decide whether my feelings are valid.” […] In late January or early February 2002, a white fourth-grade teacher in Wilmington, North Carolina was formally reprimanded for teaching the word and told to attend sensitivity training.
Illiteracy has discovered a new way to destroy language.
After first thinking how obviously the word should be defended by all right-thinking people I realised that it’s actually not all that different from “real” racial slurs that used to be non-offensive. Dickens and Conrad used “nigger” with no pejorative intent (above from actual disdain they may have had for blacks – compare “Nazi” about Nazis), but now the word is absolutely impermissible. This kind of negative drift happens to any word that refers to things that most people dislike (“retard”, “homo”, “cripple”), so from time to time the old word is thrown out because it has become dirty and a new one is chosen. This way we can pretend everyone doesn’t actually hate people who are different.
I’ve always considered this practice to be rather pointless but I go along with it anyway, just to be polite (I still use the word “retarded” – another word that often means something else than illiterate people think and causes confusion). But if people now do start to take offense at “niggardly”, what is one to do? If non-pc words have to be discarded just because they have taken on pejorative meanings, why not this one? I don’t see how the extra idiocy damages the basic “no one is allowed to hurt anyone’s feelings” argument.
Due to these musings I’m tempted to reverse my position on political correctness in general, but it’s probably wisest to accept that these things just don’t work logically and I have to take what I can get. In the British-speaking world “niggardly” should be ok for another decade or so – then it’ll probably be time to fight for language like “kill child” when discussing processes (you know, in computers).
