In Defense of Slurs

Nigger. Faggot. Tranny. Kike. Gook. Slant. Chink. Jap. Wog. Sand nigger.

These words have power, terrible power. That power needs to be respected and appreciated for what it is. Sanitizing it with censorship (viz. "The N-word") downplays the impact they have. Saying "someone called me a t****y" lightens the experience and denies the full power it has over me. No, if that happened, you bet your ass I'd say "someone called me a tranny," because that's what they fucking called me. That accurately conveys the experience of being called that.

Racist-ass teabaggers don't call Obama "an N-word," they call him a nigger. Sanitizing it lets them off the hook. It denies the full force of it. A lot of people think of my friend as "a gay man," but some consider him a faggot - not "a f****t." Again, sanitizing lets them off the hook. You don't feel the impact when you read that. It becomes dry and detached and loses all emotion. If I say "someone called my friend a nigger," you'd better feel the emotional impact of that word. It had better make you mad. If it doesn't, I'm not accurately communicating the experience.

Think of it like this. I could dance around it and be like, "you know that word, that slur, that's used against people like me? Someone used that word." You'll figure it out. But it's purely logical. You go through your vocabulary and look it up in your internal dictionary. You don't have the jarring effect of actually reading the word. When it's thrust on you like that, you can't help but be affected. Which you should be. The slurs have real effect; removing that denies their seriousness.

I'm not endorsing using these words against people. What I am saying is that mentioning these words, and quoting them, should not be off-limits. Policing discourse like that treats us all like children who don't understand how language works and must be insulated from others' experiences. It cuts off the ability to convey the experience of hearing them, reducing it to a dry, emotionless denotation. It negates the seriousness of people thinking in those terms. I don't think people consider me "a t****y," I think they consider me a dirty fucking tranny. See the difference?

The obvious objection would be that a censored word is still identifiable, so it should make no difference. But if it makes no difference, why are you censoring it in the first place? By censoring it you acknowledge that it has power, you just don't want that to be able to be communicated. You're shutting down discourse, not protecting people from having slurs hurled at them.

So, slurs. Let's have them. Let's not use them against people, but when they are used against people, let's not sanitize it. When people think that way, let's not sanitize their scumminess. Let's be honest.