Thanks.

Saying "I don't want them calling me out" or "I'm going to continue saying these things because free speech" is like saying "I know I'm saying the wrong thing, and I don't care that it's used for dehumanization", and that is a fucking problem.

Personally, I think it can be a problem, but that the reality is often very complicated. Context and perception always matter.

I have heard white people use the word nigger in ways that I found offensive and in ways that I did not. I have also heard black people use the word nigger in ways that I found offensive, and in ways that I did not. The crux of the matter lies in that there is a difference in how I am offended by the use of the word based upon who is saying it, and why they are saying it. Black people are able to use the word nigger in a way that I cannot, simply because part of the meaning that any word carries comes from the speaker. For that reason, black people using the word nigger does not imply acquiescence of white teenage boys to using it in any manner they see fit; it is not the word alone that carries the meaning. Therein lies the intellectual dishonesty about avoiding the word nigger in an educational setting that makes us uncomfortable. The word nigger in a class reading of Mark Twain is not the word nigger at a frat party, nor is it the word nigger in this comment.

I have a friend that has a clothing store. In describing the style of her clothing, I have used the term 'gypsy punk'. You know what that means, and you know how I used it, much like Stevie Nicks. No doubt there are contexts where the word might carry other meanings, but as I use it in that context, as myself who grew up hearing Fleetwood Mac's song on the radio and hearing the word and using it in similar ways, the term gypsy is not a slur. To say that my use of the term gypsy is dehumanizing is similar to saying that the literature professor's use of the word nigger in readings and discussion of Huckleberry Finn is dehumanizing. But that isn’t to say that the word gypsy cannot be dehumanizing, or that some words have very narrow contexts in which they are not. We need to be comfortable with such nuance, because that nuance is intrinsic to communication. It is also what makes language powerful.

As much as the speaker must be conscientious of the context and the meaning the word carries as it is spoken, the listener must be conscientious of the same. The listener has responsibility in their own interpretation. Words are not words alone, and the same sound does not always provoke the same meaning. We must be honest about this, because it is a truth of language that we cannot escape. My use of the term gypsy is not implicit approval of use of the word in a dehumanizing manner. A black person’s use of the word nigger is not an implicit approval of my use of the word in a similar way; although I can make the same sound, I cannot project the same meaning with that sound.