In the sixties Luciano helped found the Young Lords, the Puerto Rican version of the Black Panthers, and belonged to the performance group the Last Poets. Recently, he's worked as a mainstream TV and radio reporter; he spent last year as vice-president of news at Air America. Luciano says he understands "the impulse to put up a united front against words that marginalize and stereotype. But morally condemning a word without looking at the substantive problem simply applies a Band-Aid. If I'd been on the council, I'd have argued for multicultural diversity classes, for more black, Latino, and Muslim teachers, and for more discussion in schools of the history of institutionalized slavery." And will he perform "Jibaro, My Pretty Nigger" under the moratorium? "Of course," he says. "People stop me to this day and quote it word for word." —Debbie Nathan