[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Dude, would you use that word around someone who has Down Syndrome?
Cause let's be honest here, when people use the word that's the association they are making.

You're insulting someone by referring to them with a derogatory term for another group, with the implication that the insulted person, and the group you are comparing them to are inferior.

It's a slur, plain and simple.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you haven't really thought about it and just say we can all be better, so give it some thought, and move forward and try to be a bit better by not using it anymore.

If you wouldn't call someone a F** or a H***, then you've already figured it out with other words/groups.
Both of those words have the same semantic arguments about "Oh well they are words that can be used in a non slur way", but if you're using it as an insult, you mean it as a slur.
This isn't any different.