May i start the bidding for that brain of yours for $1,000,000,000,000!!!

another top shelf effort mate... It has only been a few months that you have been here, but the voice of reason you display - especially in this insightful article, is second to none...

Thanks again King you certainly are a very valuable member of our community!

BAM!!!

im not planning on blacklisting or deleting your posts either. i spent most of sunday morning discussing your previous article with you (im not sure you caught my last comment there actually) and i did read your post. (actually i think the title is more accurate than you intended it to be--it is an empty word by comparison) im not personally hurt by racial slurs (not in the same way as i might be if i were the target of that particular one). but i truly believe that the real damage isnt limited to the race being nullified. its like freedom. when freedom is denied to one, we are all that much less free. i hope ive been clear enough in differentiating the chasm between words that cause pain and those that deny a persons basic humanity that you can perhaps see why i find this so problematic. btw--check google and youll see the draginols comment is the first hit on the list.

exactly mack.

You have no right to say that I hurt more or less than anyone else, and honestly you didn't need to

i dont believe i said that. i have no reason to cause you or anyone else pain
.
my point is simply this: as painful as the most inappropriate, cruel or unfair characterizations may be, they still fall far short of the damage done by racial slurs which exist only to express one message: the target is less than human because of his racial/ethnic ancestory.

thanks mig. it kills me to think the internet--a venue in which color or ethinicity is even more totally irrelevant than the real world--can be so easily and mindlessly despoiled.

kingbee, im curious to know if youve ever called or referred to someone as a "bitch," or worse yet, a "cunt." Be honest. And do these terms then imply that a woman is "less than human?" i havent used that word to describe female humans in general or a specific female in over 30 years. it may actually be longer but im positive i havent since march 1974 (which is a milestone for me because thats when i moved permanently to southern california) i cant recall using before then but im guessing i probably did when i was in high school. ( i frequently use the expressions 'son of a bitch' or 'what a bitch' to express surpise, frustration or disappointment etc.) i dont like hearing women use it to refer to themselves even when theyre doing it in a joking sorta bragging context. i know there are women who intensely dislike the word 'cunt' . i never use it for anything except as a euphemism for vulva and only in the company of woman ive heard use it in the same sense and only after asking make sure were both on the same page. pussy always strikes me as sorta childish. i dont use either word in anger nor as an insult of any sort because i dont find anything unbeautiful about that part of the body. i dont have a problem with more than a handful of the hundreds of thousands of words i use and read and hear or the hundreds of thousands of words of which im unfortunately still ignorant. im not advocating censorship much less political correctness but voluntary restraint in regard to the use of words that are used solely to insinuate that their target is something less than human because of an accident of birth. in addition to the damage they do to the target, i believe they enable a climate in which those who use them--even casually--diminish their own humaneness. on the other side of the coin, ive tried to de-toxify words such as 'witch' and 'slut' that are customarily used to manipulate, control or diminish women. in general i find euphemisms annoying and stupid and use them seriously (as opposed to sardonicaly or humorously) only when it seems likely doing otherwise would be hurtful or upsetting. just as an aside, i grew up in detroit where children above the age of 8 who are unable to use the word motherfucker as three distinct parts of speech in the same sentence are led to the city limits and banished.

"im equally concerned with both parties in this type of situation"

No offense, but I find that a bit hard to believe, actually. I have seen the accusation of homophobia needlessly lobbed at people on threads you have taken part in. I never saw this kind of outrage leveled at the people who disparaged others because of their religious beliefs.

"i really have to wonder how the use of one cancels out or invalidates use of the other? "

I never said it did, and I never refered to anyone with the 'n' word, so no one was slurred. I'm not "using" the 'n' word, I'm referring to it. By your standards you can't even discuss the 'n' word without using it hatefully.

I placed homophobia in the same class, not to lessen the blow of "worse" words, but to show how hurtful it can be to be called mentally ill or hateful because of your religious beliefs. I see little difference between religious faith and the "accident of birth". To me changing my faith would be about as feasable as changing my race.

sorry i wasn't as clear as i intended. i had to take care of something unexpectedly. in the case of your hypothetical, a person who is so obsessed with racial issues that he or she would attack a stranger in public for no other reason than race is clearly in need of help. the victim is likely to be traumatized no matter how well hes able to appear unaffected. and id be concerned equally about both parties. i wouldn't be able turn back time and prevent it. i would--and have--make sure it didn't go unremarked. i've seen a lot of terms hurled wildly and irresponsibly throughout the threads of various blogs. at this point im probably desensitized after having seen accusations of vileness, idiocy, irrationality, disconnection from reality, hatred, obsession on pretty much a regular basis. i was pretty much concerned with the discussion we were having and not paying a lot of attention to much else. nothing you said in your posts struck me as homophobic. at worst you seemed a bit too focused on the number of deaths per year rather than the numbers of people who were identified as infected (which until the early 90s was tantamount to a death sentence after 10-20 months of suffering ) and the very rapidly increasing number of people testing positive for hiv is why it was considered an epidemic. iim not sure why you seem to be saying that you're being singled out for your religious beliefs. i don't think it likely that christ would have been attacked by gay men and women as a homophobe. its much more likely he would have been accused by temple leaders of homophilism (as he was for samaratiphilia). im not at all what homophobia has to do with mental illness unless you're saying phobias are a type of mental illness--which isn't at all the case the impression i get from what little reading ive done seems to attribute the phobia not as a fear of gay men so much as a fear of being gay. based on the dates you mentioned sunday, you're an adult and by now theres no fear of that im sure. i never even consider the possibility Jim gay and i doubt you do either. if youre being unfairly attacked--and thats what youre saying; im in no position to refute that nor would i want to. youvve twice expressed your belief that homophobe is a meaningless term. that being the case, why subject yourself to any more of it? in this situaiton youve got a great advantage over a black man being attacked with that slur. you can move on choose a more favorable battle on your own terms. unless youre involved in a blog that draws attacks on your religious beliefs you can avoid all that becase you dont stand out as as being religious so no one will know unless you choose to tell them. a black person is going to look like a black person- unless he or she wears a face mask, and gloves. thats why theyre called racial slurs

you should own "male guilt" for the hundreds of years that women were treated as lesser beings for quite some time, ive been trying to determine when and how it came to be that gained control of religion and medicine (both of which im fairly sure were for a very, very long time, a very long time ago the realm of women). there is no question in my mind women possess an extra sense and are superior to men in most aspects and no less than equals in the rest. rather than attempting the impossible (redressing the inequitable treatment of women in the past) ive been doing what im able to eliminate it in the present.

Here's tolerance to all Ns,Hs, Ls, Cs Bs--they're all in the family called humanity

Resorting to name-calling of any kind is simply exhibiting an immature mind and a lack of ability to express ones ideas in an acceptable manner. I feel the same way about using profanity in ones speech or writing. While an OCAASIONAL mild expletive may add the "air" a writer wishes to create in a sentence, heavy, constant use of profanity also shows a lack of intelligence and or vocabulary. I view slurs and basic name-calling in the same vein.

My ethnic background is Irish/Apache. The Irish have often been referred to as the "N" of Europe, and well, Indians are hardly well thought of even today in America. I personally do not make a huge issue of slurs and name-calling simply because it says far more about the person using the words than it ever will about me. Let them use their slurs and petty names,; it reveals them for what they are.

I try to express myself in a manner that not only communicates the ideas I wish to get across, but also a level of intelligence and decorum that I feel commands a certain amount of respect regardless of the topic at hand.

No word from Goodyear. I've already accepted another position. I need a paycheck and can't afford to sit on my duff and wait around. I have no idea what actor/actress you may be referring to.

I have to disagree with your take on slurs vs name-calling. I see them as one in the same thing, with the exact same intention. Slurs ARE name-calling. It's all meant to be hurtful and to degrade the intended recipient. I think trying to draw a distinction between them is just splitting hairs that don't need to be split. It's all unneccessary attacks by intellectually deficient minds.

Yeah. I agree that "homophobe" can't be compared to a racial slur. It's more along the lines of "fag" or "queer".

there is no justification whatsoever for their use in any context by anyone who is not a member of the target group and i personally dont agree with the proposition that members of the group use it among themselves as a means of blunting, defusing or 'taking ownership' of it.

I don't know about that. As somebody who's part-Mexican, I've been called racist for my views on immigration, even though in California, that immigration is based on mainly Mexicans.