In Dayton, Ohio, last week a black motorist was pulled over by a white police officer because, as the cop is heard saying on video,

You made direct eye contact with me and held onto it when I was passing you.

Where I grew up, in a small, rural town in central Florida, there was a word that got applied to blacks who didn’t know their place. That word was “uppity,” and was usually followed by another word, starting with the letter “N”.

Now you may argue that uppity is just a word meaning snobbish. But no, uppity, in this context, is racist. Don’t take my word for it. The second-most popular definition at Urban Dictionary lays it out.

Word used by racist old white Southerners to refer to any black person who looks them in the eye. Usually followed by [N-word]. “That uppity [N-word] is not working in the cotton field like he should be.”