Editing Nigger (section)

===''The N-word'' euphemism===
{{Quote box|width=376px|border=0px|salign=right|tstyle=font-size:100%|title=Notable usage<ref name="finnasidolandtarget">{{cite book |title=Huckleberry Finn as idol and target |first=Jonathan |last=Arac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twfLrDgYRlUC&pg=PA29 |access-date=August 18, 2010 |date=November 1997 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |location=[[Madison, Wisconsin]] |isbn=978-0-299-15534-6 |page=29 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130940/https://books.google.com/books?id=twfLrDgYRlUC&pg=PA29#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>|source=— Kenneth B. Noble, January 14, 1995 ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |title=Issue of Racism Erupts in Simpson Trial |first=Kenneth B. |last=Noble |date=January 14, 1995 |access-date=February 2, 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/us/issue-of-racism-erupts-in-simpson-trial.html |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308142922/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/us/issue-of-racism-erupts-in-simpson-trial.html |url-status=live }}</ref>|quote=The prosecutor {{bracket|[[Christopher Darden]]}}, his voice trembling, added that the "N-word" was so vile he would not utter it. "It's the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language."}}

One of the first uses of ''the [[wikt:n-word|N-word]]'' [[euphemism]] by a major public figure came during the racially contentious [[O. J. Simpson murder case]] in 1995. Key prosecution witness Detective [[Mark Fuhrman]], of the [[Los Angeles Police Department]]—who denied using racist language on duty—impeached himself with his prolific use of ''nigger'' in tape recordings about his police work. Co-prosecutor [[Christopher Darden]] refused to say the actual word, calling it "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language". Media personnel who reported on Fuhrman's testimony substituted ''the N-word'' for ''nigger''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McWhorter |first=John |date=April 30, 2021 |title=How the N-Word Became Unsayable |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html |access-date=May 27, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=June 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611014642/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Cherry |date=October 4, 2020 |title=N-word: The troubled history of the racial slur |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53749800 |access-date=May 27, 2023 |archive-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210121239/https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53749800 |url-status=live }}</ref>