The Politics of Taboo Words

Two currently hot news items in Britain involve public figures using controversial language with political consequences. The Chronicle follows New York Times style rules about vulgarity, so I shall use caution in giving some of the details about the cases I want to contrast.

The first concerns a radio DJ who made the mistake of playing the wrong version of a song: a 1932 recording with lyrics containing a word that today is regarded as an offensive racial slur (though in 1932 it wasn’t). One lis...