**** Elections thread *****

[BananaStand]

You can't say nigger, that's racist!

Why?

Because you're white!

Right. Do you need this explained to you?

[OngBonga]

Right. Do you need this explained to you?

Yes, please do explain it to me.

[BananaStand]

Yes, please do explain it to me.

I mean, I don't even know where to start. I'm not a black person, so I can't speak for them. But I don't think I'm far off when I say that it conjures up feelings of oppression and subjugation. It's also connected to historical atrocities like segregation and slavery. When a white person says it, even in a way that's not *meant* to be harmful, they are ignoring the hardships and sacrifice that black people have endured in order to be considered equal.

That word was used for a long time to denote a different class of citizen. You can't just decide to neuter it, detach it from it's historical significance, and pretend it's just a word. Even worse, you can't then expect an entire race of people to accept your newly-neutral definition of such a significant word.

Another example is the gay f-word. In the UK, it can mean cigarette, but everywhere else, it means something different.

Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, people believed in witchcraft. They accused women, tried them on flimsy evidence, and sentenced them to burn at the stake. Those fires were started using bundles of kindling wood called faggots. At that time, homosexuality was also a crime punishable by burning. However, it was a crime considered so heinous and evil, that the accused were not even allowed the dignity of being tied to a stake. They just tossed them on the fire with the other "faggots".

So, by definition, calling someone a faggot is equal to saying "you're so worthless and devoid of consideration that your life is as expendable as kindling wood".

Most people don't know the history there, and why the term is so offensive. But that doesn't mean that it should be received by a gay person any less hurtfully.