Only one thing is certain about use of the n-word, a lasting truth that was uttered by the courageous Atticus Finch, hero of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

"Do you defend niggers, Atticus?" his daughter Scout asks him. Finch answers with a pearl of wisdom:

"Of course I do. Don't say 'nigger,' Scout. That's common."

Finch's words --- actually, the words are those of my hometown heroine, Harper Lee, who wrote the book in the late 1950s --- retain a simple profundity. All you can know for certain about those who use that epithet is that they are a little too comfortable with crudeness. How could it be otherwise, when the term is used by racists to demean and by black rappers and comedians to entertain?

Yet for the last few weeks, the campaign for the U.S. Senate in Virginia has been dominated by questions, revelations and accusations over use of the n-word. After Republican incumbent George Allen used a different racial slur to insult a young man of Indian background, a trickle of witnesses emerged, charging that in private conversations, Allen often uses the n-word as well.

Allen's supporters have flung the charge right back, alleging that his Democratic opponent, James Webb, has also used the term. As a result, campaign platforms and position papers have been cast aside while journalists pursue any report that either man may have uttered the word.

The obsession with that highly charged epithet suggests the continuing difficulty we have in publicly discussing racism, which is still alive and well in America but increasingly difficult to define and identify. Political and social arbiters who can't agree on much else do agree on one easy rule: Use of the n-word is prima facie evidence of vicious bigotry.

Except it isn't --- at least not the sort of malicious racism that matters. The use of demeaning racial and ethnic epithets might instead be evidence of arrogance, ignorance, immaturity or some ruinous combination of the three. In the case of Allen and Webb, mere use of the n-word tells voters little about the man or his morality. Context is everything.

If you live in a dark skin, as I do, you have probably developed pretty good instincts for discerning friend from foe. But many black Americans are easily distracted by the n-word, especially if it is used by whites.

I've known black parents to protest classroom instruction of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" and even "Mockingbird," simply because the n-word turns up in dialogue. Those parents show a troubling inability to make critical judgments about the motives and intentions of some of American literature's best-known characters. Yet they often allow their children to consume the raunchiest rap music, full of violence, misogyny and liberal use of a certain epithet.

Campaign reporters will probably continue to search out old acquaintances and teammates of Allen and Webb, but most Virginia voters already have the crucial information they need to assess the men. What matters most is not what happened in the 1970s or '80s, but what happened two months ago.

Speaking at an August rally in southwest Virginia, Allen pointed out a brown-skinned Indian-American, S.R. Sidarth, who was videotaping Allen's remarks as a representative of Webb's campaign. (That's a common tactic on the campaign trail.) Allen twice called Sidarth a "macaca" --- a species of monkey --- ending his tirade with "Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

While Allen first claimed he had made up the word, it is a common racial slur among whites in northern Africa; since Allen's mother grew up in Tunisia, he had undoubtedly heard the term. Equally telling, he "welcomed" Sidarth to America.

As it happens, Sidarth was born in Virginia, and is just as American as Allen. But Allen, blinded by bigotry and xenophobia, is unable to see it that way. In a nation that claims to be a "melting pot," that is unacceptable in a political leader.

As for the n-word, Harvard law school professor Randall Kennedy explored its awful power in a scholarly book called "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word."

"There is much to be gained by allowing people of all backgrounds to yank (the word) away from white supremacists, to subvert its ugliest denotation." Kennedy writes.

I respectfully disagree. I still like the better advice Atticus gave Scout: Don't use the word.