Don't Call the Doctor

When I heard that Dr. Laura Schlessinger used the N-word eleven times, I had one question: WTF?

I certainly wasn't LOL.

Schlessinger - whose doctorate is not in psychology but in physiology, the study of the functioning of living systems - was asked by a black woman on how to deal with the apparent racism of her white husband's friends, and the not-so-good doctor saw nothing wrong with the N-word because black comedians use it all the time. Schlessinger could have stopped there, but she complained how, when white people say the N-word, "it's a horrible thing. But when black people say it, it's affectionate."

Schlessinger - who obviously never paid very much attention to the viciousness of such stand-up comedy - offended the caller, who called her on using the N-word. Schlessinger proceeded to use it repeatedly, complained about being taken out of context and told the caller that maybe she shouldn't have married outside her race. To her credit, Schelssinger admitted that what she said was wrong, but didn't actually she was sorry, and that she was trying to make "a philosophical point."

Schlessinger - whose doctorate doesn't require her to discuss anything related to deep thought - must be on another planet. I understand her point - black people use the N-word in popular entertainment and no one complains. How does she know a lot of black people don't find that offensive? Why does she think that black comedians on cable television and their largely black studio audiences reflect black America? And if Schlessinger - whose mother was an Italian war bride of an American Jewish soldier who served in the Second World War - can't recommend ways to deal with adversity in mixed marriages, why would anyone should ask her for advice?

Schlessinger - who keeps making me insert clauses following her surname that are punctuated by hyphens - ought to get out of her radio station studio and listen to what black people really think. And if she wants to make philosophical points, maybe she should read Plato or Freud so she can learn how to think before she speaks.

I can't believe that Schlessinger - who was once endorsed by odious right-wing pundit Cal Thomas as a standard bearer of family values - is likely to remain on the air. I'm calling her by another N-word. Neanderthal.