I want to mostly second Steve's response, in my own take.
Try: "It's hard to accidentally offend somebody by referencing a word relating to an attribute they are proud of."
You can use any words in a nasty or insulting way for disparagement, and people often react to actual disparagement, with or without a slur word (unless as you say, t…
I want to mostly second Steve's response, in my own take.
Try: "It's hard to accidentally offend somebody by referencing a word relating to an attribute they are proud of."
You can use any words in a nasty or insulting way for disparagement, and people often react to actual disparagement, with or without a slur word (unless as you say, they have great confidence) - but intentional insults are not the issue here.
If the word is just pronounced as a reference, or read aloud from Huck Finn, and just hearing the syllables offends somebody - do you still think *that* kind of hyper-sensitivity is compatible with pride (just lack of confidence)? I think Steve has a point.
I am a little lost in the nuance of all of this.. To a first approximation I think we are all agreeing with each other. But I think it is possible to have strong identity/pride in a thing and ALSO have insecurity/sensitivity about the same thing. I think the person that sees Blackness as core to their identity will have alot of pride and identification with that label. If they also know that many view Blackness in a negative light, then the could become quite sensitive and insecure about that same label. So in this narrow sense I think I might be diverging from your thinking. e.g. it seems strong identification with a spurrned identity could yield a combination of pride and insecurity.
I want to mostly second Steve's response, in my own take.
Try: "It's hard to accidentally offend somebody by referencing a word relating to an attribute they are proud of."
You can use any words in a nasty or insulting way for disparagement, and people often react to actual disparagement, with or without a slur word (unless as you say, they have great confidence) - but intentional insults are not the issue here.
If the word is just pronounced as a reference, or read aloud from Huck Finn, and just hearing the syllables offends somebody - do you still think *that* kind of hyper-sensitivity is compatible with pride (just lack of confidence)? I think Steve has a point.
I am a little lost in the nuance of all of this.. To a first approximation I think we are all agreeing with each other. But I think it is possible to have strong identity/pride in a thing and ALSO have insecurity/sensitivity about the same thing. I think the person that sees Blackness as core to their identity will have alot of pride and identification with that label. If they also know that many view Blackness in a negative light, then the could become quite sensitive and insecure about that same label. So in this narrow sense I think I might be diverging from your thinking. e.g. it seems strong identification with a spurrned identity could yield a combination of pride and insecurity.