Double Standard

This doesn't exactly address the question, but there is a good reasoning technique promoted by Alan Dershowitz and others called "the shoe on the other foot" test. If the shoe were on the other foot, what would you think then? What would you be saying?

This test can help clear the smoke that tends to gather around these issues and help thinkers get to an objective standard.

I'm a big believer in calling a spade a spade.

Using the N-word haphazardly is not cool. But calling a black person who sells out his or her community to the "white plantation owner" an "Uncle Tom" is not only OK, it's good. Of course, the term Uncle Tom can also be applied to other groups of people.

Here's a though experiment to ponder:

Let's travel back in time 500 years and imagine a region in Africa. One day a sailing ship carrying Europeans appears. The white visitors quickly set out to enslave the people, turning the region into a colony. Their rule is brutal. (See the infamous King Leopold as an example.)

Mired in misery and fear, the people tell each other of their hatred for white people. They use a word comparable to the N-word to describe them.

Would you call that appropriate? Would you consider those people racist?

It depends on how you define racism, of course. But I would not find that behavior in the least.

If black people in the U.S. vent against the white population, I'm generally OK with that, too. However, if they targeted me personally, I would try to establish a dialogue and convince them that I'm on their side.

The people who are oppressing the black community in the U.S. are the same people who are oppressing just about all U.S. citizens. American Indian Movement leader Russell Means said it well when he pointed out that, after destroying Native American civilization, white people put themselves on reservations, locked up in cities and suburbs controlled by the same government that screwed the Indians.

Steelman incoming:

- Slurs are a method of dehumanisation

- Minority groups have been historically dehumanised, especially with slurs

- Thus these slurs have a very painful and traumatic history

- So using them, even as a joke, is extremely offensive and unacceptable

The N-word, F-word (not "fuck", the other one O_o) and other slurs should not be said, even as a joke or to quote, except by the marginalised group in question, to "reclaim" the word and take away its power.

To illustrate: black person saying the N-word is okay because it was designed to insult black people, yet it makes no sense said by a black person in order to insult (because they'd be insulting themselves).

On the other hand, slurs for white people "don't exist" because they lack "power to hurt", because there's no dehumanising history behind them. So, it's okay to say "cracker" or "white trash", and, even as insults, they're not "that bad" (or at least, "as bad" as, say, the N-word) because of this history.

This of course, begs the question by assuming the contentious premise that the lack of painful history behind a word makes it socially acceptable to use as an insult, especially with regards to words/phrases that attack people based on innate characteristics. Also, "less unacceptable" doesn't mean 'acceptable'...so just because we agree "white trash" is less offensive than "black trash", doesn't mean that "white trash" is okay either! (non sequitur)

Let me clarify... my exception was meant mostly for "punching up," as in a celebrity roast. As for "punching down" with comedy, I do believe there is room for this (I wrote a chapter about it in my book Reason: Books I & II ) but I do agree that some things are too painful to be funny. Put it this way, I am a huge fan of Ricky Gervais.

Another thing. White people even saying the n word even casually (like among "white" friends, or just in general. not insulting) if found out is considered insulting, not many people apply that same standard to saying cr or white trash. Or other white slurs

Yes. Look at Rationalissimo's response to me. The history of the term justifies the different standard.