Although the N-word is arguably the ugliest and most incendiary word in our language, I'm actually more upset with U.S. Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) for using the term "white crackers" than I am with NFL player Riley Cooper for hurling the N-bomb at an African American security guard.

Just in case you missed it here's an excerpt of what Rangel said in an interview with the Daily Beast that was posted today (http://www.thedailybeast.com/...):



The Tea Party? Defeat them the same way segregation was beaten. “It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police. They didn’t care about how they looked. It was just fierce indifference to human life that caused America to say enough is enough. ‘I don’t want to see it and I am not a part of it.’ What the hell! If you have to bomb little kids and send dogs out against human beings, give me a break.”

I agree with Rangel that racism is at the heart of the Tea Party and some of the same tactics used to prevail during the Civil Rights Era can be used to defeat the Tea Party, but he should've found a smarter, more eloquent, less inflammatory way to say it. Perhaps he could've used the term Southern Dixiecrats or even white Southern Dixiecrats...but not the C-word. Too loaded of a term--although far from as repugnant as the N-word.

As for Cooper, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, he was caught on a video that went viral saying this at a Kenny Chesney concert: "I'll fight every n****r here!" In the aftermath, Riley has taken a leave of absence from the Eagles in an effort to find peace and hopefully get himself together--possibly by taking racial sensitivity training.

Both Rangel and Cooper were wrong for using those slurs...no excuse for either and I repeat, the N-word is far more vile than the C-word, but sometimes you've got to consider the source.

Rangel is a United States Congressman. He's 83 years old. He earned degrees from New York University and St. John's University Law School. He served with distinction in the Army during the Korean War, when he was wounded in action and was awarded a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for Valor. In short, he's a sophisticated man of distinction, who has been around long enough to fully understand the painful ramifications of using inflammatory, disparaging racial terms--especially as someone who has probably been on the receiving end of them.

Cooper is a football player. He's 25. And although he graduated from the University of Florida, he's still an unsophisticated kid who catches balls for a living. And of course he should know better than to use the N-word, but I have no expectation of him to be a mature adult or even an exemplary member or leader in our nation. But I do have those expectations of a U.S. Congressman.

Imagine if a white Congressman stopped short of using the N-word to describe blacks but used terms like coons, jigaboos or spooks. Imagine the uproar...and rightfully so.

So, now Rangel has done something I hate. He's given those on the right legitimate ammunition to scream about black racism, as opposed to the BS they typically rant about with no justification. "See! See! We told y'all blacks are racists!!" they'll say repeatedly and try to build a false equivalency between the N-word and the C-word. He's given them something to rally around, much like they love to talk about black-on-black crime statistics, they'll be talking about this for weeks on end.

Thanks Charlie. The wingnuts and the folks at Fox News love you for this. I guess you were tired of Riley Cooper hogging the headlines. Perhaps you'll join him in those racial sensitivity classes. But seriously, the very least Mr. Rangel should do is apologize for using that term and then go on fighting and calling out the Tea Party's racism in much more sophisticated ways commensurate with his status as a U.S. Congressman.