Is The "N-Word" Over?

I'm starting to think so, at least where black activists are concerned.

We've been deluged by emails from "The Strip" listeners and blog readers outraged by the easy use of the ultimate slur of black people (five times) and women (twice) made by longtime Vegas headliner and Comedy Central star The Amazing Johnathan on Aug. 9 on "The Strip.

Since that show aired, Norm Clarke in the Review-Journal did a major item on it on opening day of the National Association of Black Journalists convention here in Vegas. The NABJ was the leading activist group attacking Don Imus earlier this year. But Clarke says he got nary a returned call or email from anyone at the NABJ. Nor did the NAACP or any feminist groups take any public notice. Hear a 3-minute clip of the remarks here.

Is it that Amazing Johnathan's not a big enough star? That would be an odd way to decide what to be offended by -- and give an awful lot of license to an awful lot of people to use the word willy-nilly. Is it that there's no video, a la the Michael Richards thing? That could be, but the odd thing here is that Richards used the words in anger in a momentary loss of control; Johnathan essentially defined what he believes a "n-----" to be in a way that offers real insight into his thought process. Or, perhaps, the NAACP, having "buried" the N-word recently, is over it.

To refresh, Amazing Johnathan defended Richards' use of the n-word by saying: "Anything you do, if you're heckling a comic and interrupting a show, you're a n---- at that point, you know what I mean, in my eyes. You're not an audience member, you're not a friend, you are the worst possible scenario. You're disrupting my job, so you're a n----. I wouldn't yell that word out and tell them that, I would have handled it a little bit more differently. If I did use that word, it would've been funny. I mean, I've called women in the audience c---s and I've gotten away with it because they were c---s but I did it right. There is a way to do it right."

I guess Amazing Johnathan's right.