LONDON: Some words are better not uttered. One is nigger, another is Paki. In normal use, both denote a nasty racism that modern society loathes.

However, in one dialect, black-American English, nigger is a term that can signal not abuse but acknowledgement.

One only has to listen to New York rapper Jay-Z’s Jigga that Nigga, take in a Spike

Lee movie, or read Black Harvard academic Randall Kennedy’s new tome, entitled Nigger, to realize that some African Americans are comfortable to use it among themselves.

The true meaning of words, it seems, depends upon the person who is speaking them.

Into this cultural and linguistic minefield has stepped George Bush, who in the middle of trying to resolve a possible nuclear crisis in south Asia referred to convincing the “Pakis” of not going to war.

The president has a reputation for using English as if it is a foreign language, but given the diplomacy required when stroking and soothing nuclear powers, this counts as a gaffe.

Most Britons will instantly associate the word Paki with ”bashing”, with gangs of skinheads who beat up people because of the colour of their skin.

In a nasty reminder of the prejudice of yesteryear, some claim that the word originates with English racists in the 1950s who tried to blame smallpox in England on Pakistani immigrants.

But like nigger, one of the few places you might hear the word Paki today is in the company of non-white people.

In that context, the word is still offensive and used derogatorily to describe those of Pakistani origin.

Sometimes the slur is subverted: for example last summer’s cricket matches between Pakistan and England saw Asian youths with banners proclaiming “Paki Power”.

Perhaps such use will transform racially pejorative terms. But this is unlikely until the bigotry that gave rise to such terms has been fully erased.

Until that happens, English speakers might benefit from choosing their words a little more carefully. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.