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Sometimes good intentions and a reasonable degree of awareness can land you in a funny place.  A place where, for example, someone with a good heart, a little knowledge of America’s racial history, and a foreign upbringing regularly refers to a grown man with a term more often heard in toddlers’ bathrooms.

Here’s how we came to this odd place:  A good friend of mine, a Frenchman who is fluent in English and runs a paper plant here in town, rents out half the basketball court at the Mountain Brook YMCA every Saturday so the guys who work for him can play ball.  They often bring friends, and lucky for me, my friend – we’ll call him Tony Parker (that’s an alias, as my friend is white and not an NBA player) – does too.  After my first time playing with that crew, I tried to ask Tony about a player who’d impressed me with his strength and passing.  Of course, true to form, I’d forgotten his name.  The following conversation ensued:
   
“Hey – the really strong guy in the white shirt – the guy who can really pass, what’s his name?”

“Poop.”
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