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“Negro” and (the derivative “n-gger) were not dropped because someone was just too sensitive - the words were dropped because they became common slurs for an ugly stereotype, based on nothing more than skin color

that is the problem with “retarded” and the derivative “retard” - too many people using it as an insult, not a clinical mental condition one is born with or develops from injury or disease. Teenagers seem to be among the worst offenders. Mine will never use this term loosely.

The term “retarded” as a mental condition needs to go back to being a medical term, not a term of contempt

There are right ways to use a word and wrong ways to use a word. For instance, If I use the word -- Negro, simply as a term to refer to a black person, IT IS A LEGITIMATE USE OF A WORD and should not be condemned. The UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND has been in existence for ages with not one person demanding a change of name.

We don't need to drop a word just because it has been used as a term of contempt. If we do that, we'd soon run out of words to use. What for instance if someone starts to use the word -- BLACK -- as a term of contempt. Will that word then be banned? What are we, so cowardly that we allow self-appointed word policemen to force us to use or not use a word ?

The equivalent term of the word "negro" for a white person is "caucasian". The equivalent term for a person who comes from the orient is "oriental". I don't see anything wrong with using these terms either.

However, it is possible to use a racial term to insult someone as in --- "you caucasian pig". It really depends on the CONTEXT used.

I am not suddenly going to don my word-police clothes and demand that the word caucasian NOT be used from now on just because I hear a lot of people use the term as a slur.

As an exercise in understanding contextual usage, here's a borderline joke that has been used in the airwaves by none other than the conservative icon -- Rush Limbaugh. On his show, he played the song --- "BARACK THE MAGIC NEGRO" ( to the tune of Peter, Paul and Mary's, "Puff the Magic Dragon" ). Is that uncalled for and censurable ? Or not ?

A lot of black people ( AKA Negro ) are demanding his head for that.