Wikepedia states
“Much like today’s socially acceptable terms idiot and moron, which are also defined as some sort of mental disability, when the term retard is being used in its pejorative form, it is usually not being directed at people with mental disabilities. Instead, people use the term when teasing their friends or as a general insult.”
Is it only a slur if directed at soneone with mental disabilities? Is it a slur if durected at onself?
Whats lemmies take on this?
Utterly incorrect. Irony does not affect whether a thing is a slur or not. It doesn’t matter what you use the slur towards, it remains a slur. Any excuse you use to explain why you can use a slur is exactly that: an excuse.
Youre right that irony doesnt stopbit being a slur, but usage absolutely matters. Unless you think its inexcusable black people using the n word with each other? Context is incredibly important.
Just to make it clear, I am white, so take my opinion on this with a grain of salt.
From what I understand, there isn’t a universal consensus among black communities that the n-word is okay between black people. Some people get just as offended no matter who says it.
Of course, some people are perfectly fine with it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a slur. It’s still a slur, it’s just not offending anyone at that moment. It’s like an empty gun: it won’t harm anyone, but it’s still a gun.
I guess that is what I take issue with, that statement makes it sounds like any use of a slur is always wrong regardless of context and that any reason for using it is just to wiggle out of you being a bad person.
I mean, it might be a good excuse. Doesn’t change the slur.
In Blazing Saddles, the actors playing the racists apologised to their co-stars after every take. They had a damn good excuse to say what they said, but they still apologised for saying it.