But from what I've gathered, due to it being impossible to not be inundated with bullshit while on the internet, you are entirely, absolutely, correct. In every respect.

But I thought that before I even learned (due to your post) that this whole controversy is over something that happened twenty years ago. Twenty freaking years ago. People are celebrating the repeal of DOMA this week, but what was the state of gay rights twenty years ago? What was the state of half the modern conveniences and ideas we take for granted today? Twenty years is a very long time. There's a statute of limitations on actual crimes that people commit that doesn't last that long, but for some reason it is acceptable to denounce and judge a person for something she said? Especially after a period of immense stress? Would it really be somehow better if she referred to the robber as a "motherfucker," or "piece of shit" or any of the hundreds of possibilities of words rather than "nigger?" Yes, the word "nigger" has a very strong historical and cultural meaning. And that would make it offensive if it was used by a former slave owner. But there aren't any of those anymore. Now it's just a word, no worse than any other word. And even if you disagree and think it is an awful, terrible, simply incomparably evil word, it's still just a word. There are much bigger things to worry about, many bigger problems to tackle, and many people more deserving of criticism than someone who said a bad word once 20 years ago.

Btw, in their defense, most of the news articles I've read lately about the Zimmerman trial have mentioned how he had a broken nose, injuries on the back of his head, and so on. Of course that didn't stop esquire from republishing what must have been a 10 page article on Trayvon, who you'd think was in the running for sainthood.