Federal Trial Will Decide on Discrimination of Free Speech over the Word "Nigger"

The word "nigger" is an interesting word. If some people use the word, they are racist. If others use the word, they are celebrated. No other word I know of brings out so much emotion and so much hypocrisy. Now a federal court will rule on how the word "nigger" can be used in the American workplace. Call it discrimination of the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick will soon rule over a court decision that decides if it's okay for blacks to use the word "nigger" in the work place but wrong for whites to use the word "nigger" in the work place. Yes, blacks don't like it when whites use the words, but they have no problem calling each other the word, which is used in many hip hop and rap songs like some kind of badge of honor. I'd prefer it just go away for good.

The case involves a Burlington news anchor of a local Fox station. He used the word in a production meeting while discussing a news story about the word. The Philadelphia Youth Council of the NAACP had a symbolic burial of the word.

Tom Burlington, who is white, was fired after using the "n" word during a June 2007 staff meeting at which reporters and producers were discussing reporter Robin Taylor's story about the symbolic burial of the word by the Philadelphia Youth Council of the NAACP.

Burlington, who began work at the station in 2004 and is now working as a real estate agent, was suspended within days and fired after an account of the incident was published in the Philadelphia Daily News. He alleges that he "was discriminated against because of his race," according to court documents. He claims in his lawsuit that at least two African American employees at Fox29 had used the word in the workplace and were not disciplined.

The dispute began after Taylor, who is white, used the phrase the "n" word during the 2007 staff meeting. She said participants at the burial had said the full word "at least a hundred times or more," according to court records.

"Does this mean we can finally say the word n-?" Burlington asked colleagues, according to depositions.

Nicole Wolfe, a producer and one of the three African American employees among the nine people at the meeting, exclaimed: "I can't believe you just said that!"

Burlington told Taylor that although he did not necessarily expect her to use the word in her story, he thought that doing so gave the story more credence.