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

[The Straight Story]

277. So only people you can see as being black can?

So you want to base such things on what you can see of their skin color? Nothing at all to do with the culture, where someone grew up, etc and so on - you want to base things on a person's race.

Interesting that skin color has such meaning to you. What do you see when you see a black person? What do you think when men see women (that we want to have sex with them, are undressing them with our eyes, etc?)

You see to want to apply templates to people based on sex and race as though those are the sole definers of who they are, and if they don't fit they are 'cohorts' or 'traitors' to their gender/race. YOU and a few others want to define who can use what when based on gender and race because that is what you see when you look at someone.

Not everyone grew up like one might see in some book they read. A person is more than the total of their color or gender, they have experiences which transcend your classifications of them and the box you try to fit them in.

So no - I don't want to judge who can use a word based on skin color or gender. I don't think I don't belong in certain groups or they don't belong in mine as we have many shared experiences and how we choose to communicate should not be left up to some person on the internet or some other person considering themselves an expert on our lives.

We have much more civil discourse in real life than here since we aren't telling people they are bad for talking to each other how they all accept. Come on over to my hood and stand in the store here and tell people how they are wrong and they should only say what you approve of. It would be interesting. They would look at you like you were from a foreign planet.

You know who folks don't want using certain language - keyboard commandos and folks in ivory towers who feel they can preach to the unwashed masses and try to 'civilize' them by removing their 'savagery'. You know, the folks who tried to educate and transform the Indians and others. The folks who think the real world is some university text and everyone is divided up by experience in the world by race/gender and that people that don't look a certain way can't understand - except themselves of course, they understand.