Mahers been here before: Watch him defend using the n-word …

As reported, Bill Maher has lined up a panel of guests who will no doubt attempt to helphim talk through the furor he created when he called himself the n-word last Friday on his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher.

While the host has already offered a partially well-wrought apology in the face of intense pressure and criticism, this is not his first public go around with the loaded racial epithet.

In a post on theFader, writer Jordan Darvillehelpfully reminded us all of something that, quite shamefully for this moment, slipped the minds of many (including Salon).

In 2001, following a similar controversy tied to comedian Sarah Silvermans use of the anti-Chinese racial epithet chink, Maherinvited her,Guy Aoki of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans and the actor and activist Anne-Marie Johnson to discuss the issue on his ABC show Politically Incorrect. David Spade, much to his apparent and understandable embarrassment, was there too.

As you can see in the video below, the discussion around Silvermans joke seems even more brokenand fraught than it probably did at the time. Its doubtful Silverman or any accomplished comedian for that matter would perform it today, let alone go on network TV to tell an Asian-rights activist they were wrong for taking offense toit.

Talk turns, as one would expect, to the n-word. The combative exchange betweenJohnson and Maher starts at about 13:40.It does not go well for the host.

Blacks are like whites cannot say this word,' he says.I disagree. This word has changed in the last 10, 15 years. According to who? asks Johnson. According to culture . . . Maher booms back at her. Ask any African-American person in this audience what that means, Johnson replies with an appropriate amountof alarm. Every African-American person in this audience users that word night and day, its in every song its all through culture says Maher.

With Johnson declaring youre wrong, youre wrong, Maher brings up the worn old penny about the n-word now being a term of endearment, explaining to a black woman how she should feel. He thenstates to the light-skinned Johnson, First of all, I wouldnt even know you were black if you didnt tell me.

I love it when white people try to define what is African American,' says Johnson. Im African American regardless of my skin color or my hair, she added. I think Im only one on this stage whos qualified to talk about the meaning of the word, how it hurts, how it doesnt hurt, where its used, the history of it. Because I live it everyday. David Spade continues to look miserable.

Having heard that impassioned demand for understanding, Maher nonetheless continues, Its in every song on the radio, okay?Nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga is in every song, okay? People come up to me and go, Bill, you a nigga. But I cant say thank you or I go please dont use that word?

After talking about the group NWA and his mother, Maher adds, Im saying when the word has come this far into the mainstream, for a very good reason they co-opted the word to make it less powerful. As Johnson notes that she objects to its use in rap music because it shows a lack of appreciation for history, both Maher and Silverman trumpet words evolve!

Listen, folks says Johnson, its not a word we can use. Can you please pass me the tea, and pass me the nigger too? Itstill hurts. Following that, Silverman and Maher continue to try to paint Aoki and Johnson as somehow villains for being hurt by epithets (or, as they seem to think,lyingabout claiming to be hurt.) Seen through todays lens, its deeply shameful.

Now, yes, some 16 years have passed since this segment, 16 years that have seen a great deal of changes in how we talk about race in the public square. Undoubtedly, there have been a great many changes in Maher as well: he evinced none of the strident defensiveness seen here in his apology this Saturday.

And, yet, when you combine this footage from 2001 with the ease and self-satisfaction apparent in his use of the very same epithet on Friday, it paints a picture of a man whos quite willing to disregard the pain he might cause black people all so he can say his precious n-word.

Who Bill Maher willbecome down the road may be a different creature. Up until Saturday, however,he appeared to be one incapable of listening to the pleas of someonereasonably, passionately, persuasively asking him not to hurt them from, literally, three feet away. It makes the case for his honest rehabilitation shaky.

Maher may say hes undergoing a process of self discovery, but he was given all the tools he needed not to wind up where he is now over a decade and a half ago. He didnt learn a thing.

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Mahers been here before: Watch him defend using the n-word ...