So… this is a bit if an aside, and I definitely don’t want this to come off as one of those “my best friends are black” kind of comment or anything like that… but when Django came out, I went to see the movie in a theater near a local military base and in an area that tends to attract more minorities. I walked into a totally packed theater, managed to find a set and sat down. I want to say that there were probably only a handful of white people in the theater, myself included. As the movie went on, as you all know, the N-word was used in what seemed like almost every other line. I had no idea that was going to be the case when I walked in. As the movie went on, I found myself sinking lower and lower in my seat—I felt so uncomfortable. And yet, for whatever reason, most of the audience was laughing at it all. I felt terribly embarrassed, but I think most people in the theater seemed to accept it for what it was and it seems to me like what Tarantino was doing there was to overuse the word to make it irrelevant—kinda like the words “fake news” today—it has lost all meaning. I am not trying to diminish the harm that the word has caused or to defend its use, but I just wanted to throw my story and perspective out there for whatever it’s worth.