Well, to be fair, we're talking about your suggestion for how the word should be treated and your "refusal to be censored" in your usage of it:
"I say, beat the motherfucker to death. Use it to describe your pencil. The family dog. The weather. Get creative, like my child."
This is what I'm disagreeing with.
And the trend in usage of the word seems most definitely to be in the opposite direction to what you're suggesting here. In the 70s, 80s and even 90s, the n-word was used, uncensored, in primetime comedy TV shows. Reporters, including white reporters, could use it in context with no fear for their jobs. Teachers could teach Huckleberry Finn. Joe Biden used it in a Senate hearing. All of this is more or less unthinkable today.
I'm advocating for removing the taboo of the word. I think we agree there. But I still feel very strongly that that should be done sensitively. I feel like your framing misses that second part.
"But we're aren't talking about my usage."
Well, to be fair, we're talking about your suggestion for how the word should be treated and your "refusal to be censored" in your usage of it:
"I say, beat the motherfucker to death. Use it to describe your pencil. The family dog. The weather. Get creative, like my child."
This is what I'm disagreeing with.
And the trend in usage of the word seems most definitely to be in the opposite direction to what you're suggesting here. In the 70s, 80s and even 90s, the n-word was used, uncensored, in primetime comedy TV shows. Reporters, including white reporters, could use it in context with no fear for their jobs. Teachers could teach Huckleberry Finn. Joe Biden used it in a Senate hearing. All of this is more or less unthinkable today.
I'm advocating for removing the taboo of the word. I think we agree there. But I still feel very strongly that that should be done sensitively. I feel like your framing misses that second part.