ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 14, 1996 TAG: 9612160040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE CONSEQUENCES OF USING the racial epithet are being illustrated by a lengthening list of notables: Mark Fuhrman, Texaco, Bob Crumpler, Bill Stewart
Bob Crumpler and Bill Stewart both have discovered the professional consequences of using racial slurs: their careers go up in flames.
Nissan plans to pull two franchises from Crumpler after he was caught on video using the word ``nigger.'' Crumpler has Nissan dealerships in Newport News and Portsmouth.
Stewart resigned as football coach at Virginia Military Institute after reports surfaced that he had used a racial slur in referring to a black football player.
``The fetish about the word is because it refers to the strongest prejudice in society,'' said Edward Ayers, a history professor at the University of Virginia, ``and black people are just now getting the power to get people to stop using it.''
``This is not just a matter of civil rights organizations like the NAACP being vigilant, but my sense is that the majority community is very interested in a situation where these words will not be used,'' said Harold McDougall, director of the Washington bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. ``I think that there are many people of the majority community who do not see themselves as racists and who will not tolerate it among anyone else, either.''
The consequences of using the word were made clear when Detective Mark Fuhrman testified during the O.J. Simpson trial. His liberal use of the term in a series of interviews with a screenwriter helped undercut the prosecution's case against Simpson.
Oil giant Texaco recently paid a $176.1million settlement of a racial discrimination suit.
The pressure on Texaco mounted dramatically after plaintiffs produced a tape of executives using racial slurs, mocking the black cultural festival Kwanzaa and plotting to hide or shred documents sought by the plaintiffs.
The word can even destroy the careers of black people. A volunteer for Republican Sen. John Warner was fired in November after using the epithet in a conversation with the Virginia chapter of the NAACP.
``I believe that if you disrespect a person because of their race, sex or gender, you must be punished,'' said Linda Byrd-Harden, executive secretary of the state NAACP. ``If that means losing your job, then so be it.''
Ayers said the condemnation that follows the use of the word is a sign of changing attitudes in the South and across the country.
``I grew up in the racially segregated South in the 1950s,'' he said. ``This is a remarkable change historically, when you consider these things were said casually for centuries in the South. The South has suddenly pivoted.''
By stopping people from using racist terms, Ayers said, there is a chance that their thinking may change as well.
That conclusion was disputed by Harden. She talked about the Texaco case, Fuhrman and Crumpler, and how people seem to be unable to stop using the word.
``What will it take for people to learn?'' she asked. ``When you use a derogatory racial slur, that depicts the kind of character and behavior that person has towards people of another race. It's a demeaning term.''
LENGTH: Medium: 66 linesby CNB