N-word becomes very hot potato

The N-word has been in the news here, with our politicians defending a University of Ottawa professor who used the word in a discussion about how certain communities reclaim negative expressions. (An earlier such case at Concordia involved a professor using the word in reference to a certain book by Pierre Vallières which includes the word in the English translation of the title; I saw a discussion earlier today, which I forgot to note, claiming that the French word used in the original title has less of a sting.)

Now a north-end high school teacher is in hot water for saying the word in a discussion of current events.

Some of this is about confusion of the use-mention distinction, basically taking any utterance of the word to be a use. But it can’t be so difficult for professors to find some way to approach a discussion that might involve such a highly offensive expression that doesn’t involve actually uttering the word in class.

…Oh here we go, Pierre Trudel in Le Devoir: “Le fait qu’en français le mot n’ait pas la même connotation échappe à plusieurs.” Is it for him to say so?