" NIGGER "
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,— I wish to add my endorsement to Mr. Scoresby Rout- ledge's letter in your issue of November 29th, condemning Mr. Julian Huxley's use in your columns of the term "nigger." This white man's epithet of contempt for the coloured man is employed by no Americans of fine sensibilities and is gener- ally banned in the United States from polite discourse like the parallel terms, " dago " and " hike," for Italian and Jew, and " chink " for the Chinese. There may be a place for "nigger" in certain branches of literature which take for their theme the milieus in which it is used. But the callous- ness with which the ordinary educated Englishman uses this offensive term is one of the most shocking things that a well- bred American encounters when he visits your country.
Careful American publications make a point of capitalizing the word " Negro." In the past it has commonly been written with a small letter, but educated members of the coloured race, who are always keenly sensitive to discrimination, take legitimate exception. If " Caucasian " and " Mongolian " are written with capital letters, why not " Negro " ?—I am,
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