Forgive me, but this was my impression all along:

"Martin: Imus' attack mostly sexist, not racist" - CNN.com, 4/13/07.

If I know the slang at all, I know it from the book¹ and the HBO program.

Frankly, upon first hearing of the show and the book some years ago, I suspected that the expression was derogatory. I was surprised that it would be used in the context of young children. I thought use of the language was a strategic attempt to defuse it, to rob it of its harmful effect.

Basically, without having read the book or seen the show, I came to intuit the expression as one of "celebration," a celebration of diversity. But, apparently, the expression is genuinely pejorative and, thankfully, I never adopted it into my vocabulary because I would have to unlearn it now.

I'm not really up on my paleoanthropology but the Out-of-Africa model still holds sway, doesn't it? I mean, ultimately, you can't insult another person without in some way insulting yourself.

But I long for the day when the word "bully" invokes as much opposition as the word "racist".

¹ Controversy over the book