Quote Originally Posted by TISS View Post
Bob

You say ordinary rules don't apply because of a person's skin colour. That is the very definition of racism. I know you don't intend for it to be racist, but when we start treating people differently and allowing them to act differently to each other based solely on skin tone, then we are promulgating race distinction via the backdoor.

Either the word is acceptable to all or none at all.

The way Africans were treated was a crime against humanity, not just a crime against africans. Africans betrayed Africans, Europeans abused that betrayal.
Don't agree with your first paragraph at all because when it comes to the colour of someone's skin, I cannot think of one descriptive or made up word off the top of my head that is definitely used in a complimentary way - it seems the best we can hope for is just to call them by that colour, so white, black and redskin are seen as fairly neutral terms (at least I think they are, but I may be wrong) and I suppose something like Caucasian falls into the same category.

Many other words would be viewed as an insult though by the group the word described and it seems to me that the large majority are names given to dark skinned people by those with paler skins. The n word is unusual in that it is a word that some blacks have no problem with using in certain contexts, It's true that there are very many blacks who disagree with this, but, undoubtedly, we're talking about a word that involves nuances depending on the colour of the skin of the person using it - the reaction by the person the word is directed at can differ greatly depending on those nuances, so we are talking about a word that can be interpreted differently no matter what you claim.

Apparently there are white rap artists who use it, but, from my perspective, any white person using the n word is either using it as an insult (or worse) or is so stupid as not to understand the implications of what they are saying - either way, there can be no legitimate excuse I can think of for a white middle aged or old politician to use it in this day and age.