CAUTION: This post contains a word that many people find offensive. Because the point of this post is to examine society’s contradictory and confusing attitudes toward the word, I’ve decided to use the word—and to warn you that you will see the word throughout the post.

It’s the “n” word. Nigger. The abbreviated version appears in most recent news articles about a decision by a publishing company to reissue two Mark Twain literary classics and to replace every instance of “nigger” with “slave.”

This Publishers Weekly Online news article uses the word nigger and explains why Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books plan to combine versions of “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in a volume that replaces the “n” word with the word “slave.”

The announcement already is causing debate among purists who decry changing Mark Twain’s writing, and “social purists” who find the word nigger offensive. According to the Publishers Weekly article, some teachers want to include Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer in their classes, but are concerned about offending students and parents because of the “n” word.

I’ve rarely used the word nigger as a racial epithet—I WANT to say that I’ve never used it that way, but I probably have, at some point in my life. My current view of it was molded in the early 1980s while watching the movie, “Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip.” Until then, I had laughed and laughed at Pryor’s comedy–which had included a seemingly endless supply of expletives and epithets, including “nigger.”

But I was deeply moved as Pryor talked about a trip he took to Africa in 1979. He said that he was changed after seeing millions of Africans, any of whom could have been his relative or neighbor if it had been in the United States, living as “regular people.” They weren’t “niggers”; they were people, he said. Pryor swore he would never again use the word “nigger” in his stand-up comedy routines, and I also vowed that day never to use the word as a racial epithet.

But that doesn’t mean that I, or you for that matter, should be conflicted or contradictory over whether the word should remain in our literature, music, or everyday conversations.

An interesting point that I learned while researching this post. In 1998, Pryor won the first Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Wikipedia quotes former Kennedy Center President Lawrence J. Wilker as saying:

“ Richard Pryor was selected as the first recipient of the new Mark Twain Prize because as a stand-up comic, writer, and actor, he struck a chord, and a nerve, with America, forcing it to look at large social questions of race and the more tragicomic aspects of the human condition. Though uncompromising in his wit, Pryor, like Twain, projects a generosity of spirit that unites us. They were both trenchant social critics who spoke the truth, however outrageous.

Pryor forced us to look at the social question of race. Twain forced us to look at the social question of race.

What about rappers?

It’s not my favorite music genre—by a long shot. But I have a teenaged son who has fought for years to be able to load explicit rap songs on his iPod. It used to only take one utterance of the word nigger on a song for me to make him delete the song, or at least stop playing it in my presence. But what I prevented when he was 15 is not as easy to avoid now that he is 17. Anyway, I think he gets perverse satisfaction out of making his dad squirm. I know that I did when I was his age.

I know a guy who has recorded rap songs. I downloaded his latest project onto my iPod and gave it a listen. Along with the usual themes of sex, violence and drugs, the lyrics were coated with liberal doses of the word nigger. I wondered why a black artist would want to use this derogatory word…so I asked him.

I probably sounded like the 50-something white suburbanite that I’ve become:

I don’t understand something, and I want your honest opinion.

I read today that a book publisher is changing Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, to replace the “n-word”—as they call it—with the word, “slave.” Why don’t you and other rappers consider the word offensive, and something not to avoid in songs and conversation?

I'm 1/2 Irish, 1/2 German. I don't call myself a "Mick Kraut" (or McKraut). Perpetuating the 'n' word doesn't remove the sting, does it?

When he didn’t respond immediately, I started to worry that I had breeched some secret racial social barrier that was supposed to keep us from talking about this sensitive topic. Keep white people from understanding some deep pain—or its antidote—that is only shared among black people.

It turned out that he was only waiting for break time to respond. Silly me!

Good question,

As far as changing the book I would have to disagree, the N word is as much a part of our culture as the book…

Hip hop is a form of art and expression there for there are no boundaries… when I was a kid my grandpa and uncles would use that word as a term of endearment like “yea son this willy right here… he my N-word” so I wasn’t raised on the word being bad, only if u use it in a offensive or challenging way dose the word become a problem for most people…

And its funny but the “ER” rule is always in effect, what that means is “it’s not what u say its how u say it.” Like my BFF would say “im a ni##a not a ni##er lol

“Nigger,” “Nigga,” “Slave.”

Words have their specific meanings, and a remarkable author like Samuel Clemens (a.k.a., Mark Twain) knew the subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle differences.

What was good enough for Mark Twain is good enough for me. If my teenaged son can hear a rapper singing about his “nigga posse,” my son should be able to read the word “nigger” in “Huck Finn” and “Tom Sawyer.” I don’t want to offend people, and if anyone in my son’s class would object to the word, use it as a way to link the past with the present. Talk about what it meant to be a “nigger” in the late 1800s. Talk about why people think it’s acceptable or not acceptable to use the word today. That would be educational.

I believe that Mark Twain, if he were still alive, probably would be heartened that we understood what he was trying to say…and to some degree, what he was trying to stop.

Networking during the holidays Tip #3: Get past it!

This is a construction barrier, used to deter people from moving into a construction area. Its intent is to increase safety at the work site. We’re not meant to get over it, or around it.

This is a high hurdle, similar in shape to the construction banner. Its intent is to increase difficulty during a cross-country meet. We’re meant to get over it, but not around it.

This is a communicator who has become frozen at a networking event, unsure of what to do. My final tip for networking during the holidays is to get over whatever fears, doubts, and/or anxieties are keeping you from getting started. I’m going to share some ideas for getting around those fears, doubts and anxieties.

These barriers are limiting your opportunities to enhance your professional contacts and to increase your opportunities to advance your career. How do you overcome your personal barriers?

1. Recognize your barriers.
You can start with this good article on WikiHow, “How to Overcome Shyness.” It provides advice and tips on how to recognize and overcome shyness in social situations.

2. Make a decision to proactively work on your networking skills.
We often need the accountability and “realness” of concrete goals before we take action to change for the better. That’s true in the resolutions we make at this time of year, the decisions we make in our personal lives, and the planning we undertake to advance our careers. You won’t move forward unless you make a conscious decision to do so. So do it right now!

3. Put yourself in networking situations, and then network, network, network, baby!
Check out local organizations to find networking events. Some events are open to anyone, others are member-only. For example, IABC/Chicago recently held a great networking event that included a presentation on effective networking.

Here are a couple of other resources to help you improve your networking skills:

Barbara Gibson’s Power Networking Tips Former IABC Chair Barbara Gibson is a social media and networking champion, and this tip-sheet offers some practical ideas.

How to Network Effectively This post on eHow contains useful tips for you, as well.

The increasing use of social media is allowing us to make connections in new and wonderful ways. Just remember that networking–in whatever ways you do it–can improve your personal and professional lives. Don’t let the holidays end without making a commitment to putting yourself out there–and get ready to leap over (or move around) those barriers that have stopped you before.

One of my many responsibilities at VW Credit, Inc.’s Chicago Service Center is to place awards, customer letters and other similar items in a display case located in the main hall of our call center/operations office. It’s nice for employees and visitors to see the various ways that our company and its employees have been honored for achievements and thanked for charitable donations.

Today I had to explain why I wanted to remove some older items from the display case. Our facilities head was aghast. “What do you want to do with the stuff you take out of the display…toss it?” he asked. I thought he was going to have an episode when I replied that that was exactly what I planned to do.

“We should keep it to show people,” he said. “Don’t throw it away, give it to me and I’ll find a place to store it.” Awash in the holiday spirit, I agreed to pass along any awards that I remove in the future from the display case.

Don’t tell him that I already had tossed an award from a charity that acknowledged our donation in 2002. That award was proudly presented to “Volkswagon Credit Union,” which misspelled “Volkswagen” and mistakenly called us a credit union.

Does your company store its outdated awards, plaques and mounted correspondence, or dispose of it after an appropriate amount of time?

I used to think that it was clever to convert a telephone number into a word, using the letters on a telephone keypad. “What a great way to make a phone number easy to remember,” I thought back then.

But technology (actual mobile phone design) has changed all that, and companies that use words, rather than numbers, in their advertisements are showing that they are out-of-touch. And that’s exactly the effect that they are having with their device-dependent customers.

It actually is annoying to have to hunt-and-peck on a telephone when all you have to go on is the “secret word.” That’s why I told my church’s marketing team years ago that it was fine to list the phone number for Joy Lutheran Church as 1-847-362-4JOY, but that they should include the final four numbers in parentheses (1-847-362-4569).

What back then was annoying, today is harmful to potential sales and customer satisfaction. That’s because the correlation between letters and numbers on mobile phone keypads is no longer standard.

Here’s an example. I wanted to call OfficeMax regarding its MaxPerks(r) reward program. The only phone number listed in the MaxPerks brochure is 877.OFFICEMAX. The first thing I noticed is that OFFICEMAX is nine letters, and U.S. telephone numbers (minus the area code) are seven digits. So OfficeMax has tacked on two letters that are meaningless–and confusing–to a customer trying to dial.

The adventure continues, depending on the customer’s mobile phone. Here is a keypad similar to the one on my Nokia phone.

See how each number 0-9 is assigned to just one letter? That is not the way that old-time landline telephone keypads are designed. But more and more people are opting away from landlines, and using their mobile phones exclusively.

So when I tried to dial 1.877.OFFICEMAX, I experienced this:

• The letter O--no corresponding number
• The letter F--the number 4
• The letter I--no corresponding number
• The letter C--no corresponding number
• The letter E--no corresponding number
• The letter M--the number 0
• The letter A--no corresponding number
• The letter X--no corresponding number

Without the actual digits shared in the OfficeMax brochure, I was totally unable to call them. Frustrating! Would that be the case for my Blackberry friends? Oh yes!

However, their numbers 0-9 are assigned to different letters than on my Nokia, so the picture is even more muddled. Imagine a Nokia user trying to share a “decoded” number with his colleague using a Blackberry. They’ll never get the number right!

Ok, since so many creative types adore all things Apple, surely the iPhone designers anticipated this issue and made an app for it. Not really:



In fact, I’d say that iPhone users really have no chance, because their phone’s keypad makes no attempt to correlate numbers with letters. Perhaps it’s for the best, right?

If you work in advertising, marketing or sales, point your communicators to this post. It will save your customers much frustration, and prevent you from having a real “hang-up” with customer satisfaction.




















Tip #2: Remember your place, and circulate past it.

The above photograph was taken in 1998 or 1999. It’s a photo of executive administrative assistants from Fort James Corporation enjoying a holiday meal at the Forge Club in Vernon Hills, Ill. That’s me on the left–the only male in the group.

At that time, that’s what I was: An administrative assistant at Fort James Corporation, a global consumer products company. I’m telling you this so that you understand that my Tip #2 is based on my experiences on both sides of the management divide. It’s directed primarily at managers, but definitely does have application for “front-line” employees.

Just a few years prior to when this photo was taken, I supervised a group of administrative assistants within the Management Services Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. My later role just before joining Fort James was manager of a small team that provided document production and other communication services to consultants and staff at a Chicago-based consulting firm for the healthcare industry.

I thought I understood how to navigate between the worlds of administrative assistants and front-line employers on one side and “upper management” on the other. I’ve held positions that provided me access to all levels of the organizations for which I worked, and I thought I knew how to “act” with everyone in the organizations.

But somewhere along the line, I forgot what it’s like to be on the bottom of the corporate food chain…until I accepted the executive administrative position at Fort James.

That move occurred a short time after I decided to quit my manager job at the Chicago-area consulting company. I had been working 10 to 12-hour days, seven days a week for several weeks, and for many reasons, had had enough. Although (maybe surprisingly) my wife supported my decision to quit–she knew how the job was affecting me–it was scary to leave a job without having the next one lined up.

To jump-start my job search (I wasn’t a member of IABC at that time, so I couldn’t use its job board), I went to Manpower to apply for communication positions. My thinking was that accepting a temporary position within a company would give the employer a chance to see my value, and me a chance to avoid another bad employment situation.

The phone was ringing when I returned from the meeting with a Manpower recruiter. She was excited as she told me that I would be perfect for a position with a Fortune 250 company that was relocating its headquarters to the Chicago area. The starting salary, if they brought me on full-time, would be exactly the same as the salary I had made at the Federal Reserve. A step backward from the salary I had earned at the consulting firm, but no doubt a better deal on a work/life balance basis, I thought. The situation sounded great…until she told me the position: Executive Administrative Assistant to the Senior Vice President/Controller.

“Administrative assistant,” I remember almost stammering into the phone. “B-but I’ve MANAGED admins in my past jobs.” I ended the call with a promise to consider the offer. The conversation that followed with my wife was very difficult and humbling. This job would provide a decent salary at a company that was doing well. I could prove myself in full view of the company’s top executives, and work toward moving into a more suitable communication role after paying some dues.

On the other hand, it could be a career-ender, with me painted into a professional corner that would keep me from getting back onto the successful career path I had been traveling along.

I’ll talk more about what happened at another time. To bring this back to the original point of this post, I interacted with people from all levels of Fort James. At times, I could clearly see that someone was looking at me as a lowly admin, and sometimes would seem perturbed when I would assert myself based on my overall experience and skills.

Even in my current position, I’ve worked with a couple of management-level people who clearly wanted to limit their interactions with me and others “below them” according to our internal band levels. This kind of “superior attitude” isn’t directed solely at administrative assistants!

The point I’m making is that, during this holiday season and in the year to come, when you have an opportunity to gather socially with coworkers, don’t blow it off if they are either above or below your pay grade. It’s valuable and important for connections to be made throughout the organization, and people on the “front line” do like to rub elbows on occasion with their managers and other leaders.

Circulate within your organization, and circulate “good will” to all employees.