I sent the following letter to letters@nytimes on May 2, 2021. So far, it has not appeared in The Times.
To the Editor:
Regarding The Times’ May 2 op-ed, “How the N-Word Became Unsayable,” by John McWhorter: Times editors thought it was okay for the newspaper to print “nigger” in a newspaper essay about the word’s implications. But it definitely was not okay for former Times reporter Donald McNeil to utter the same word over dinner in a discussion of the word’s implications. You gave Mr. McWhorter prime space in the “Sunday Review.” You fired Mr. McNeil. How do you reconcile your contradictory behaviors?
Yours truly,
Joel Thurtell
