Expanding on my earlier post:
Also, "black people I had known were just as uncomfortable using the word around white people" suggests that those black people were comfortable using it among themselves, i.e. considered it acceptable among themselves, to which I'll repeat my earlier statement that "I've long been of the opinion that the use of a word considered a slur, in ordinary context, by the slurred, dignifies it and makes its use by everybody well... if not acceptable, less than intolerable."
I think that piece opens up more worm-cans than it closes and doesn't deserve to see the light of day in the form in which it is presented.
(And, by the way, the (Auburn) article linked to in the article mentions that "Injun" has also been edited out of the book.)
