If anything, the last few years have made matters worse. I watched a clip of Chris Matthews accusing Newt Gingrich of racism for his "nation of people on foodstamps " remark. Gingrich countered by questioning why Matthews assumed that he was referring to African Americans. I retired from teaching a few years ago. It became evident that many students listened carefully, not for instruction but to jump on a word or expression that could be somehow misconstrued as racist. I used the expression "coal cracker" in discussing differences in regional speech and jargon. This was once a major coal mining area and "coal cracker" was slang for coal miner. For some reason, one girl...