Quote:
Originally Posted by Trumbull
Why leave that up to interpretation? Because the English language is entirely full of interpretation. Interpreting what someone means is the only value to language, and if there is no viewed racism here, if that word is not used (anymore or at all), then it's simply not racist.
Person X stubs their toe on a chair, spews out the N word, they're racist against blacks now? According to you, it doesn't matter what their intent is, it only matters what someone else thinks of it. The slippery slope of this and attempt to control language in this manner is, while not a novelty, still ridiculous.
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Yes language is up to interpretation. It's also at the subjectation of what is deemed correct, acceptable or derogatory. Indian is not the correct thing to call a Native person. They are not Indian.
Shouting N- when stubbing your toe is obviously not racist. But the term is derogatory and shouldn't even be used. If you want to use derogatory terms outside of context and claim them to be not derogatory, well you're just plain wrong and your mindset needs to change.
Example: As a kid, it was pretty standard to call peope fags. If your friend was being an idiot, he was a fag. If you didn't like someone, they were a fag. As a kid I had no idea it was a derogatory term for gay people, or that people around me may have been unintentially offended by it. So, as a kid was I homophobic? No. That doesn't mean the term is less derogatory and the kid shouldn't be educated to not use it. And adults that still use these terms loosely should be educated as well, not celebrated for conserving some outdated traditional term that is rooted in subjectation, incorrectly indentifies an entire group of people. And those who still use the terms should be shamed, and rightfully so. No different than smokers, religious fanatics, or anyone else that prides themselves on going about their lives refusing to update their knowledge on simple things.
As an adult I'm much more concious of using words like that at all. Does it happen sometimes by accident? Yeah, its tough to remove stuff like that from automation. But if I ever do/did use the word I apologize to those around me whether any of them are gay or not. Why? Because personally I take offense to those words because they are rooted in hate and shouldn't be used purely because they are reminiscent of a time when it was OK to think yourself above someone else. Whether you are hateful when you say them or not makes no difference.
I have friends that use N- when referring to their buddies very casually. I personally don't like it and make it known when they do. The best thing for those words to do is just disappear. Black people did something different and decided to own it rather than fight it. I'm not sure it's the best way to go about it but that's up to them. I won't use the word.