Put me in the "never heard of it" side of the poll. I honestly thought Clever was some sort of Leave it to Beaver reference. "8 mile" makes a little more sense to me now.
I also have never heard of the exact explanation of those terms but I have enough sense to know they could be construed as "grey" area racial terms. I think the whole problem with this race deal is that blacks think they have been the only opressed people in the world. Which couldn't be further from the truth. It just so happens that their oppression only ended not long ago and is fresh in minds. At the end of the day call me whatever the F you want. I could care less.
It says that Cleaver guy went from being a black panther, who were usually left wing radicals, to a republican. Damn, how is that possible. He must have had a life changing experience or something.
By tiptoeing around seemingly inoffensive words and phrases, you are actually being condescending and more racist than those who speak to people like they are people...not some species who must be treated differently. It's like people who whisper when they say "black". So you could care less than you do now meaning you do care.
Seemingly inoffensive to you. This is a totally subjective matter. I'd like to see you walk up to Joe Black and call him an Angry Black Man. It won't happen. You use the persona you created here to say chit like that. And yah I care. Ok. I guess now I should wait for a joke about age ehh? Grow the F up.
