Maybe, but I think the thing with words like that is that they do have meaning - they've been used for so long to insult and oppress people that they've become strongly imbued with meaning. I'm not sure that it's the same as saying things like "I hate you" or "I want to kill my prof" or whatever, simply because that word is so powerful. People don't say that word as something hollow and meaningless, or at least when they do people are understandably offended. It's like the word 'fag' - I read an article on that last year, about how it's used by teenage boys in a way that they don't connect with homosexuality at all, but the history of the word and the way they're using it (basically to call each other weak/unmanly) still has obvious connotations of homophobia (though interestingly, they said in interview excerpts that they would never call a gay person a fag because they know that that's wrong).
Again, I honestly think it comes down a lot to simple history. It's only been fifty years since the Civil Rights Movement, and in spite of the many strides made there is still a lot of racism today. Maybe in a hundred years it won't matter as much, and race/racism simply won't be an issue, but right now we're still working towards equality.
Haha, imagine if Tom Cruise said something like that, yeah... now that would actually be kinda funny. XD
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Date: 2006-11-23 06:32 am (UTC)Again, I honestly think it comes down a lot to simple history. It's only been fifty years since the Civil Rights Movement, and in spite of the many strides made there is still a lot of racism today. Maybe in a hundred years it won't matter as much, and race/racism simply won't be an issue, but right now we're still working towards equality.
Haha, imagine if Tom Cruise said something like that, yeah... now that would actually be kinda funny. XD