Has anyone noticed that the N word has become more offensive than the S word, the F word, the C word, etc., lately? Comedians will get into a lot more trouble for using the N word than for any of the others. Andy Dick, Damon Wayans, etc. I saw this after I started writing this post: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/celebrity/la-et- laugh5dec05,1,738594,print.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews or http://tinyurl.com/y2grwa
It really is all about context. If the person saying it and the people it's directed to are OK with it, what's the problem? Calling someone something by an epithet is not necessarily insulting them. If black people think black comedians using the N word is funny, should we really try to stop them? It's good to be able to laugh at yourself. Using epithets like that is probably not any worse than using insulting stereotypes. Jews might not have commonly used nicknames like yid or kike anymore, but Jews have been making fun of themselves at least since Chelm: http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/6174/programmers-chelm.htm So I really don't know if banning the N word is the answer, and I really don't think that banning it just for white people is fair or or useful. I think using the N word is not necessarily racist in itself, although others may disagree. What Michael Richards said was racist even without the N word.
