There's a pretty blatantly obvious contextual difference there and it's not "white guilt" to avoid using that word.
What is it then? Even ignoring the etymological history, I'm smart enough to know that I'm not supposed to drop the N-bomb at all because I'm aware of the negative connotations that it carries if I was to use it
just because I am
indeed a middle class white guy. On that basis alone I know that there is no context that it is "allowed", and when you factor in the historical background I'm aware that "white guy dropping N-Bombs" alone is enough to make people believe offensive intent. I'm also smart enough to know that it does
not carry the same connotations universally, and that it's foolish for people to act like it does when trying to dictate offensiveness; hence huskeR32's response about a "bigoted term" is meaningless because it doesn't actually refute what Johnnypenso said because it isn't an inherently bigoted term.
There's a pretty obvious contextual difference between the LGBT community using the word queer and its history as a slur.
What is it then? The word itself was essentially a slur even
before it carried the connotations as a slur specifically against homosexuals. Then it was used more directly against homosexuals. Now it, like the N-bomb above, falls easily under the umbrella of "words most people are afraid to use in public because they know they are 'bad'", but now parts of the LBGT community are
deliberately trying to normalize it so it has no harmful intent. How is that any different from what this thread is about? Don't be an asshole and hurt people with its usage, and what's the problem?
Let's respond to your sentiment for the purposes of this thread:
The line of discussion is about white people not using the N word and you're talking about white guilt? There's a pretty blatantly obvious contextual difference there and it's not "white guilt" to avoid using that word.
You mean like the obvious contextual difference between
actually calling a Native American a Redskin whatever and talking about a crappy football team; which is
overwhelmingly what people in 2015 are using the word to describe regardless of what a racist asshole intended in 1932 when he named it? The movement to have the team name changed couldn't be any more obviously fueled by people it doesn't actually affect than if it actually went so far as to start on tumblr, so I find it a bit hard to directly compare the
extremely normalized usage of a word 80+ years in the making to the actual usage of the same word as a slur and be properly offended by its usage as the former.
Something like this:
I
get that, because even someone who grew up long after the heyday of TV Westerns should find the originally intended meaning obvious. But that's not what this thread is about.
