Is it ever right to use a racial slur to make a point?

[Baqal]

@A Theist
-Now you explain to me, why that someone who is a consevative, how is it that some on the left automatically assumes that person is a racist?
The structure of politics: the flamboyant prejudices located on both extremes. If someone on the left assumes that being right-wing oriented equals being racist, that person is, of course, wrong, because he uses his own, unsupported assumption against everything that opposes him. Any person that does this, regardless of his political orientation, is an idiot.

[A Theist]

As misplaced as it was, the author's use of the word was meant to be provocative in order to draw attention to the overt racism displayed by Tea Party types.

to then indict an entire group of people by association based on similar political views betrays an infantile reasoning capability.

[Clueless Morgan]

So I gather from your responses so far, that no matter the context for which the racial 'N' slur was intended, it's okay to use it anyway even if Blacks do find the term offensive(?) If it's wrong to be racist then you should also agree that it's wrong to throw around offensive racial slurs. You guys are hypocrites and you're closet racists.

How in the world did you come up with this conclusion after 4 responses that barely addressed your OP?

vorlon13 made a joke (I assume it's a joke, anyway).

Baqal asked a question you haven't bothered to answer.

Blackout chided you for taking a reactionary and biased stance against people who are politically opposed to you.

And Insanity said, and I quote:

Of all the words this one really needs to die.

So... where in those four - I repeat, FOUR - responses do you get the idea that the position of people in these forums think that, no matter the context, it's okay to use racial slurs? And then, for some reason, you carry on calling people racists and hypocrites who haven't even taken the position that you want them to take!

[Cato]

As misplaced as it was, the author's use of the word was meant to be provocative in order to draw attention to the overt racism displayed by Tea Party types.

to then indict an entire group of people by association based on similar political views betrays an infantile reasoning capability.

Pathetic. Perhaps you simply don't know what overt means.

[Napoléon]

News flash for you far-left fringers:...and you know who you are here on AF, no matter the context for which the racist 'N' slur was intended, Blacks still find the word offensive....

So what do you suggest? Outlawing the word?

Freedom of speech would be infringed. I value freedom of speech over someone being offended, whatever the context.


What you always fail to understand though A Theist, is that just because someone supports people's freedom to write and say what they like, doesn't mean they can't be equally as outraged as you when they do say what they like.

You know the problem here? The newspaper. The people behind writing this shit. It's not freedom's fault that these people are assholes. It's not the 'fringe left'. The fuck kind of planet are you on when you blame people who support freedom of speech for the assholes who abuse that right. Why don't you blame gun supporters for any shootings that happen? They want the right to bear arms don't they? It's their fault when people they don't know abuse that right? Oh right, no. It's not their fault. How could it possibly be their fault. If memory serves, you're pro guns. You don't use that same logic when kids are being shot in schools. What would you say if I said it was your fault kids get shot because you support the right to bear arms?

Just because I support freedom of speech doesn't mean I necessarily want people saying abhorrent things. Because you support the right to bear arms doesn't mean you want people doing abhorrent things with those guns either. Same principle.

[The Grand Nudger]

News flash for you far-left fringers:...and you know who you are here on AF, no matter the context for which the racist 'N' slur was intended, Blacks still find the word offensive....

Thank goodness, a cable from someone on the culture front. I'm glad that you went through the trouble of figuring it out and relaying the message - because I'd started to wonder about that.........



(I officially qualify as a far left fringer as of last night, having taken some little quiz...scoring well left and below ghandi, mandela, and the dalai llama (whose position in the graph I would challenge, but meh)

[A Theist]

Pathetic. Perhaps you simply don't know what overt means.

Yeah, I know what the word means. I was addressing your overt ignorance for your false accusation of racism against the Tea Party. To say that the Tea Party is a racist movement is a damn lie contrived by the hysterical far-left fringers. If the Tea Party were truly racist, then how does that account for black Tea Party members? How does that account for the Tea Party endorsing Black candidates it supports?

[downbeatplumb]

@A Theist
-Once again, the far-left fringe, as well as some on this very very forum, have proven themselves the closet racists they actually are...
And tell me, how is using the n-word alone racist? Are you going to judge someone's view on races by their vocabulary?

Are you asking us to not judge peoples opinions based on the words they choose to use?

Should we get them to do interpretive dance and gain their opinion of people by that?

[Napoléon]

---

@A Theist
-Once again, the far-left fringe, as well as some on this very very forum, have proven themselves the closet racists they actually are...
And tell me, how is using the n-word alone racist? Are you going to judge someone's view on races by their vocabulary?

---

Are you asking us to not judge peoples opinions based on the words they choose to use?

Should we get them to do interpretive dance and gain their opinion of people by that?

Oh c'mon, you're completely misinterpreting his point there plumb. Someone using the (I'm not going to use it for the sake of being judged) N word doesn't automatically make them a racist. It all depends on context.

[A Theist]

So I gather from your responses so far, that no matter the context for which the racial 'N' slur was intended, it's okay to use it anyway even if Blacks do find the term offensive(?) If it's wrong to be racist then you should also agree that it's wrong to throw around offensive racial slurs. You guys are hypocrites and you're closet racists.

How in the world did you come up with this conclusion after 4 responses that barely addressed your OP?

vorlon13 made a joke (I assume it's a joke, anyway).

Baqal asked a question you haven't bothered to answer.

Blackout chided you for taking a reactionary and biased stance against people who are politically opposed to you.

And Insanity said, and I quote:

Of all the words this one really needs to die.

So... where in those four - I repeat, FOUR - responses do you get the idea that the position of people in these forums think that, no matter the context, it's okay to use racial slurs? And then, for some reason, you carry on calling people racists and hypocrites who haven't even taken the position that you want them to take!

Only after two, actually. Insanity posted his response near the same time I did so I didn't see his reply until afterward. vorlon, Baqal, and Blackout diverted from answering the question in the OP so I can only assume that they were justifying the author's use of the racial slur. I answered Baqal's question in post #10 and then responded with a question of my own, to which Baqal answered in a later post. The additional responses which followed are yet diversional, not addressing the OP, but rather trying to make excuses and find justification for the op-ed author's use of the racial slur in his article. I can only believe that they're racist themselves.

---

Are you asking us to not judge peoples opinions based on the words they choose to use?

Should we get them to do interpretive dance and gain their opinion of people by that?

Oh c'mon, you're completely misinterpreting his point there plumb. Someone using the (I'm not going to use it for the sake of being judged) N word doesn't automatically make them a racist. It all depends on context.

To hell with the context. That's no justification. It's still an offensive slur no matter what the context is....

The West View News ran an opposing view column below Collier’s piece by African American columnist Alvin Hall titled, "This headline offends me."

"The decision to use this headline feels misguided to me," Hall writes. "I don’t see how its use benefits anyone, but I do feel all too clearly how it deeply offends me."