Save this story for later. Paul Mooney died on Wednesday, of a heart attack, at the age of seventy-nine.Photograph from Michael Ochs Archives / Getty âWhiteâ is an unsensual word. Where other terms that begin with the same consonants sound whimsicalââwhiffâ or âwhiskersâ or, well, âwhimsicalâââwhiteâ coldly whistles. Even without the distinctly regional pronunciation that makes the âhâ known, the wordâs imperious breathiness is there in wait, a coiled but uncracked whip. âWhiteâ and its associated terms pepper the English lexicon with euphemism: whitewash, white elephant, white lie. And, of course, âwhite,â as in white people, is a modifier that still sends its own referents running scared. Really, who can blame them? Unlike other, perhaps less civil, monikersââbuckra,â âofay,â âhonkeyâââwhiteâ is abrupt, without music. And yet Paul Mooney made it sing.