Well, if we're going to talk statistics, let's be clear that that STD study was of girls in Chicago. I don't know how they compare to kids outside a major metropolitan area and, as I haven't seen the study, I don't know what it says about Chicago boys of any race or about Chicago girls who aren't black. I also don't know how common HPV, which I gather IS the most common STD, is among the population in general, so I don't know if I'm comparing apples and oranges, apples and apples, or apples and little-trying-to-be-grown- sisters-who-need-to-keep-their­-pants-on.

As regards the N word, I heard a lovely interview on Fresh Air once with Terri Gross and Chris Rock. Terri was all upset because Chris used The Forbidden Term in his act and white comedians couldn't do so. "How could he do it?" she asked, (typically, I submit, <grin> and I love Terri and think she's brilliant) upset that there was a part of the language off limits to people like her. "Why can you say that and it's not offensive but if I were to say that, or Jerry Seinfeld, it WOULD be?" (This was years before "Kramer's" meltdown.) "Terry," Chris said, "I'll tell you: it's the difference between YOU calling your kid 'stupid' and ME calling your kid 'stupid.' If you say it, you know you love your child and you don't mean any harm to your child; you just want him to stop acting stupid. But when *I* say it, then it's on!"