The N-Word

[reepicheep]

You have two separate issues.

 

The first one is whether someone's skin colour should have any effect on what terms they are or aren't allowed to use.

 

The second one is whether there should be terms which are prohibited from use.

 

The first question is quite easy to answer, it's effectively asking whether you agree with discrimination based on skin colour; if the answer is no, the skin colour of the individuals using (or not using) terms is irrelevant.

 

If your answer is yes, you're suggesting that discrimination based on skin colour is acceptable, which is contrary to what is generally regarded as an acceptable view to hold in society, and you'd probably have a difficult time trying to justify your view, as people have fought wars as they disagree with it.

 

The second question is more complex, and there aren't really any simple answers. One way of looking at it is through social contract theory, whereby you (and everyone else in society) relinquish some of your freedom in order to guarantee that you all have a greater level of freedom - by restricting everyone's ability to use certain terms, you're restricting the ability of people to verbally abuse each other within your society.

I don't really need the n-word to verbally abuse somebody. There's plenty of ways of doing that, even without words that might be considered explicit.

 

It's not about "should we ban this word?", it's about "should we ban any words?" - if you agree with the latter, it's not difficult to come up with justification for banning a word that has connotations with slavery/etc.

Fair enough.

 

Sure. I just see very few, if any, reasons to use the n-word for me as opposed to other swear words.

 

But what if people find those other swear words equally as offensive?

Then you shouldn't use those words in their presence if you can avoid it.