Black Comedian Cut Short During N-word Routine

When the black comedian and movie star Eddie Griffin, headlining an evening of stand-up routines, asked his 1,000-strong audience: "Why are some black leaders telling us to stop using the n-word", he could not have expected what happened next. The microphone went dead.

Griffin, of Date Movie and Undercover Brother fame, was 10 minutes into his act in Miami last Friday night, having liberally peppered his jokes with the word. But the organisers of the event, the magazine Black Enterprise, had had enough.

Minutes after the stage fell silent, the magazine's publisher, Earl Graves, announced to a standing ovation that "we will not allow our culture to go backwards. Black Enterprise stands for decency, black culture and dignity." He added that Griffin would be paid his full fee but would not be allowed to finish his act.

The cutting short of an act of a prominent black comedian for using the word is the latest sign of the gathering force of a movement to reform public language. Its use, as well as that of words such as bitch and ho - widely deployed by black comedy acts and hip-hop artists - is decried by advocates of change for being demeaning and self-harming.

The movement, spearheaded by the website abolishthenword.com and the New York-based campaigner Al Sharpton, has grown rapidly since the controversy surrounding the use of the n-word onstage by ex-Seinfeld actor Michael Richards and Don Imus's removal from his radio show for describing black players from a basketball team as "nappy-headed hos".

In recent months several important groups have signed up to the spirit of the campaign. In July the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People held a mock funeral for the n-word in Detroit. The black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha has called on its groups on university campuses to bar DJs from using it and hip-hop artists such as Master P and Chamillionaire have promised to keep their future albums free of the term.