Racial Slurs

John Foley figures he has pretty much maxed out on explaining to African American mothers why it's OK to call a black man the N-word -- as long as it's in a novel that is considered a classic. For years, English teachers have been explaining away the obvious racism in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Negrohead Mountain is an unlikely memorial to a former slave who made a name for himself at the western end of Los Angeles County. More than 120 years ago, pioneers in the Santa Monica Mountains named the peak for John Ballard, the first black man to settle in the hills above Malibu. Today, authorities will take the first step toward what they consider a more fitting tribute by renaming the 2,031-foot volcanic peak Ballard Mountain. The name now used by the U.S.

Faculty and students at the University of Massachusetts rallied Wednesday in support of a black biology student who faces attempted murder charges after a white man allegedly taunted him with racial epithets, broke his nose and smashed his dormitory window. About 200 people gathered on the steps of the student union in support of Jason Vassell, who authorities said stabbed two nonstudents after he was provoked into an argument at his dormitory early on the morning of Feb. 3.

Call me quaint and old-fashioned, but I give most of the mainstream media a hearty pat on the back for refusing to spread the inflammatory and thoroughly unsubstantiated rumor that Michelle Obama once railed against "whitey" from a pulpit. Fervent e-mails and blogs have buzzed since late May with "news" that a videotape would emerge of Barack Obama's wife spewing the racial epithet.

April 6, 1987. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened that spring night. I had just finished my first week as guest producer on ABC's "Nightline." And I got a quick introduction into the power of live television. Just a few words and neither the baseball world nor one man's career would ever be the same. I was the "Nightline" producer who first called Al Campanis, inviting him on the broadcast to honor Jackie Robinson 40 years after he broke baseball's color barrier.

Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites. The message seems aimed at convincing Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman Zawahiri said in the message, which appeared on militant websites, that Obama was "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s black Muslim leader.

A Huntington Beach man was sentenced to nearly three years in state prison Monday after pleading guilty to felony hate-crime charges for yelling racial slurs and spitting on a black man in a wheelchair. Ronald Lee Bray, 25, was identified by the Orange County district attorney's office as a member of a white supremacist gang.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) announced his candidacy for the presidency Wednesday, arguing that when the media buzz fades from candidates such as Senate colleagues Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), voters will rally around Biden's foreign policy expertise. "The issue is not whether I can raise as much money or go ahead in the polls," the six-term senator said in a conference call with reporters. "It's my ideas. That's what this campaign is going to get to."

The FBI launched an investigation Wednesday after a hacker broke into the website of a Southern California organization of Islamic religious leaders, leaving an expletive-laced message against Muslims. The person attacked the website of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California late Tuesday, said the group's executive director, Shakeel Syed. The Anaheim-based group is a coalition of imams and religious leaders from 75 mosques.

A controversy that began with actor Michael Richards using the n-word in a stand-up comedy routine now hinges on an "m" word -- namely, the difference between a "meeting" and a "mediation." A promised conference this weekend between Richards and the four African Americans whom he targeted during a racist onstage tirade three months ago has stalled over the two sides' inability to agree on how the session should proceed -- and whether it would be a legal mediation.