Date:  Tue, 28 Oct 1997 09:43:15 -0800
From:  Peter McGraw <pmcgraw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LINFIELD.EDU>
Subject: Re: PC Dictionaries?

On Tue, 28 Oct 1997, STEVE ALLEN NOLDEN wrote:

> I am a Black man, not African-American, and the use of the word "Nigger"
> or shall I say the definition of the word, in the Merriam dictionary
> greatly offends me. Who gave them the right to define any one person or
> race. Is the publisher of Merriam God. Nope.

Of course Merriam-Webster is not God: this is precisely the reason why it
cannot define a word in whatever way it pleases. God might change
language; a dictionary cannot. A dictionary records language; it has no
power to determine or change it.

So what gives him the
> right to call me a "Nigger."

M-W is not "calling" anyone anything. It is truthfully recording the
(unfortunate) fact that some speakers of American English do in fact use
the term to refer to black people in a derogatory manner. Pretending
otherwise would be dishonest and would not change the fact that the usage
exists.

Peter McGraw