Glenn Brown wrote: John, you cannot possibly be that ignorant to believe that people who use racial slurs do so without any negative intent or connotation.  If you do indeed believe that, I strongly encourage you to seek some counsel and educate yourself on the matter, if you don't want to take my word for it.  I've only been black and lived in this country for, oh, my entire life, so I may not be aware of how things really are out there...

I don't ask this meaning any disrespect at all, but Glenn, are you honestly unaware that the word IS used quite a bit without any intended racist slur?

It reminds me a lot of the words "fag", "dyke", and "poof". All derogatory terms that can be used with a great deal of spite and malice, but which can also be used without such malice, often by the very people they are used against.

When I check the soundtrack of Any Given Sunday, track 11 is "My Niggas" by DMX. Is this a racial slur?

The point of this is not to start (perpetuate?) an argument, it's just to try to defuse the emotion surrounding this particular word, so that the point of the original comment can come through again.

If I misread the intent of your post, my apologies. 

Slur: a shaming or degrading effect: stain, stigma...

          an insulting or disparaging remark or innuendo: aspersion...

          to reduce, make a substitution for, or omit.

Key word in your question, Melissa, is Intent.  I may not intend to slur you by calling you anything but your name, but if my description of you includes words such as the ones you described, I still have done so. 

Whether intended or not, it is what it is.  So maybe it's synonymous with vehicular manslaughter versus first-degree murder.  Maybe you didn't intend to kill the individual.  However, that doesn't make him any less dead.

Re your question about DMX...the answer is yes.  Just because he is black, as is Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, et al, doesn't make their use of the word any less of a slur as defined above.  There is still a stigma to it.  Still a shaming..still an innuendo.  Still shows a complete lack of class and more than a fair share of ignorance on the part of the user.

Self-perpetuated racism has historically been one of its most virulent and divisive forms.  Self-hatred is at the core of it. 

And to be exact, I didn't use the word "racist."  I used to word racial, as in pertaining to race or ethnicity.  Big difference.

What is astounding to me is that I asked that we not casually toss around racial slurs, much the same way we're discussing the difference between a balloon and a bubble.  That request, it seems, cannot just be met with an "Okay, no problem..." as if it needed to be requested in the first place.  But, heaven forbid that creations of fantasy are disrespected with shortened derivations of their names, or a gutter is called a line! 

I've said it twice now and won't repeat it again.  I get the point that JB attempted to make.  I thought his comparitive example was poorly chosen and unnecessary, given the fact that the original issue was about comic book terms and not human beings.  "Black" and "N___r" are not interchangable technical terms for objects; there was no reason to go there to argue whether or not a balloon is a bubble.  I asked that we not casually use those racially-charged words, especially when they have no relation to the issue being discussed (hence the word "casual").  That's it. 

Why is that such a difficult concept to grasp?  Why does it require any further intellectualizing?

You Americans are always calling potato crisps potato chips. I don't much fancy a nice bag of fish 'n' crisps!

(just trying to lighten the mood)

It reminds me a lot of the words "fag", "dyke", and "poof".

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Poof? Never heard that one.