Yes, this is still a racist, sexist, unequal world.

[The Straight Story]

272. It is a conceptual discussion

Not about what I want to call people, but nice attempt at a smear (guess smears are ok in your book).

Some folks think the use of the word by men, at all, is wrong - but not by women. Yet women and men should be equal. There is a divide that some want kept in place while saying they are trying to tear down divides between them.

It is further broken down by some women seeing themselves as different than others (cohorts vs non-cohorts) which gives them a higher plateau to stand on and claim the 'right' to use a word and that anyone else using it hates women. When we discuss black people and the n word it is not about a sub group but the entire group folks are speaking of - yet with some women there is a divide as to who is more qualified and allowed to use a word without being called something bad because of it's use (ie, "I know the proper use of it, you don't, so I can use it with impunity and you cannot&quot .

It is a way to further separate and isolate a group from others - claiming one group is more enlightened than another and those who don't buy into their beliefs/ideals are 'sinners'.

As far as the n word goes it is used a lot where I live by both black and white people (like, 'yo, what's up N?') which actually goes to a sub group here (poor whites and blacks living together) where people outside the group would be seen as using it in the negative if they said the same thing (it would also been seen as negative by some word nannies who think they can define for others who can use what word when and whether the use is offensive to others. An attempt to define for another group what they should think about a word).

The word does not 'belong' to one sole group who gets to decide what is meant by it's use. One can use it and not hate women/blacks or feel any different about that group because it was used. In my example groups co-mingle because it is not about race but about commonality between the groups. In the case of the b word the desire, by some, is not commonality between people but creating a separate space that others cannot be part of if they don't have the right body parts to match.

This is not really about the n or the b word at all, but about how groups treat each other and communication and trying to tell others who and what they are based on the use of word (condemning others for not being pure enough to use a word that they themselves believe they can use).