–
Well, that depends on who’s using the word. If a white man says or writes “niggardly”, of course it’s racist. All white men are racists, so anything they do is, by definition, racist.

A maligned and often misunderstood word is at the center of a defamation lawsuit argued in Mendocino County Superior Court Friday.

Dennis Boaz, a Ukiah history teacher who lives in Sonoma County, is suing the county’s school districts and officials for branding him a racist when he used the word “niggardly” to describe 2009 labor negotiations with the Ukiah Unified School District.

“The tenor of the (district office’s) negotiation tactics have become increasingly negative and niggardly,” Boaz, then the teachers’ union’s lead negotiator, wrote in a letter to members updating them on salary talks.

Niggardly means stingy or miserly and has no etymological relation to race or color. But it has a long history of mistaken identity.

Boaz said his reputation as a teacher and as an (as yet unpublished) writer were damaged by the allegation and contributed to his decision to retire from teaching this year.

“I am not a racist,” said Boaz, a former lawyer who once represented convicted killer Gary Gilmore, who drew attention for trying to expedite his own execution.

Boaz said his lawsuit was sparked by “a bunch of educated strangers who didn’t bother to look in a dictionary.”

Ukiah Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Bryan Barrett, one of the defendants, said he is fully aware of the word’s actual meaning but said it could be interpreted as racist in part because the district’s superintendent, Lois Nash, is black.

“To me, it’s not what the word means. It’s how people take it,” said Barrett, who penned one of two letters accusing Boaz of racism.

Just like when a white astronomer talks about black holes in space. If a black person “takes” that as racist, assuming he’s really talking about black whores, then it’s racist.