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Reader question: Please explain “went nuclear” in this sentence, plus the “N-word”: He went nuclear when Kim told him someone had used the N-word in front of her. My comments: First the N-word refers to the word nigger, a derogative, racist and thus offensive word for a black man, particularly an African American. Exactly why and how derogative and offensive is it? Suffice to say, nigger is what slave owners and whites in general used to call a black slave, back in the day. Being called nigger is like a person of Chinese origin being called a Chink or Chinaman. Only worse, much worse because, let’s face it, what black slaves went through in America was nothing to compare with, say, what Chinese sugar cane farmers went through in Hawaii or railway builders did in California, even though the racism the earliest Chinese immigrants had to endure is unthinkable enough for the present generation. Anyways, in our example, apparently someone using the N-word in from of her, Kim, was extremely offensive to him – and he “went nuclear” because of it. That means he went mad and wild with rage. No-one has seen him angrier before perhaps. He cussed and cussed non-stop, perhaps. Perhaps, he kicked a chair or even smashed a window. Or something like that, serious, grave, devastating. To go unclear, you see, is literally to use nuclear weapons in a war. The only time anyone used nuclear weapons in a war was, of course, when America did in World War II, throwing two such bombs on the Japs. | 
