BYRDY

Thanks to those of you offering definitions of Byrd’s ‘W.N.’ Here are the most persuasive. One reader explains: “‘White Nigger’ is a pre integration southern term for the very worst white trash. The Bad guys in the movie “Deliverance” are archetypal White Niggers. I have seen a lot of old people regress into the prejudices and language of their youth as they become senile. It does not mean that he was insincere during the years he claimed to be a liberal, but that part of his mind is now gone.” Another offers: “In the early 1980’s I worked in a large discount store in a small town. In the lunch room a group of us were discussing our various religions. It was a good-natured chat, and I mentioned my Catholic upbringing – the altar boy days, the “dominus vobiscum” of the Latin Mass, the incense. I noticed an older worker at a nearby table visibly stiffen at my comments. This person, a rather odd, solitary guy, was known for being something of a survivalist of the Conspiracy bent. A few hours later I passed him in a storage section of the store. As we walked past each other he turned to me and said, “I always thought Catholics were white niggers.” I was too surprised to say much of anything, so I just shrugged and went on my way. The next day, he walked up to me and whispered, ‘N*****r.'” Well, the consensus seems to be that it’s not very nice.