Lenny Bruce (forget his politics for a moment) said that by prohibiting the utterance of an offensive word, we give that word undeserved POWER. His solution was to repeat an offensive word so many times that it becomes meaningless - like Dr. Laura was doing.
“Lenny Bruce (forget his politics for a moment) said that by prohibiting the utterance of an offensive word, we give that word undeserved POWER.”
He was right. The word under discussion has power precisely because some people are allowed to use it and others aren’t. The power is conveyed to those who are allowed to use the word and is wielded against those who are not allowed to.