# Why the need to deny bias that others have experienced?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-need-to-deny-bias-that-others-have-experienced/560164>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 10, 2010, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-need-to-deny-bias-that-others-have-experienced/560164 "2010-11-10T13:06:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 31

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**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-need-to-deny-bias-that-others-have-experienced/560164/31 "2010-11-10T17:49:40Z")

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> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Without more detail, I can’t begin to form an opinion.
> 
> If I were to relate the story that a major metropolitan city had a department director forced to resign because he casually tossed around racial epitaphs, presumably you wouldn’t bat an eye.
> 
> But if you were to then learn that the racial epitaph in question was “niggardly,” as in, “We’ll have to be niggardly with this year’s budget,” and that the man had no history of racial comments, the story – and the conclusion – changes. Incredibly, when this happened in real life some people were still adamantly of the opinion that the department head should still lose his job; it was insensitive, according to them, to even use a word that _sounded_ like the n-word, even though “niggardly” means ‘miserly,’ and has no etymological connection to the offensive racial slur.
> 
> So it’s possible, **lee** , that your complaint is well-founded, and it’s possible that you are overreacting. I have no way to tell.

I’ve read (on this very board) of instances where people would use the word “Canadian” as a racial slur for Blacks; so I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that someone who drops “niggardly” in casual speech is race-baiting (unless they are referencing Chaucer/Shakespeare).

Of course, they could be just naive; but that isn’t my first assumption…

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