You also can't use "teapot" or the name for the martial art "Sambo" or refer to various types of chocolaty deserts either -- just FYI.

Oh, and "Buffie the Vampire Slayer" was a thorn in the side of the African American community for years until it went off the air. "Buffie" is off limits.

You also can't refer to the fruit of the palm tree, or certain types of common darkly colored birds, there's a famous actor from the 30s to the 60s (starred in "It Happened one Night") who's last name is a slur, most species of non-human primates, the Bantu word for "person", certain farming tools, a common nickname for CIA agents, the Hindi word for "day laborer".

Interestingly, some of these, either exactly in or slight variants also cannot be used in front of the Irish, and some slurs go between races. Like "smoked Irish" is a slur for a person of African Descent while a phonetic variant of the "n-word" was originally used to refer to the Irish. So watch that as well around both camps.

edit: yes I'm just having a spot of fun. In a multi-cultural, multi-national message board all have to agree to a social contract, nobody is intentionally racist, and nobody is overly offended if somebody accidentally uses something that might perhaps in some circles in some small regional dialect in some particular part of the world, on occasion, be a slur.

I don't think you understood or read my original point. I never said folks "can't use" any word. I said the word is "troubling" because racists today are using it to describe African American babies. And that magazines and newspapers have avoided the words at question here for the same reason (check out the wiki link about the controversy).

I was just pointing it out. I'm not really offended by it but I do agree with many that the words "niggardly" and "niggle" would preferably not be used where other words suffice. Otherwise you end up in silly conversations like this one.

And Buffie has nothing to do with anything and isn't really a valid analogy though I appreciate the humor here. If you can show me actual usage of those words in the way you describe, then yeah I'd avoid those too. Again, go ahead and use them if you want.

"And Buffie has nothing to do with anything and isn't really a valid analogy though I appreciate the humor here. If you can show me actual usage of those words in the way you describe, then yeah I'd avoid those too. Again, go ahead and use them if you want."

I do hope you see the humor I'm trying to get across. I'd be hard pressed to find a current usage of the word used as a slur. I'm just as hard pressed to find one for "niggle" by that standard btw.

Believe it or not, I do understand where you are coming from, and trying to use humor to address it. But it is a real problem if we let the tail wag the dog (as you put it) with respect to language usage.

The only person I've ever heard use the word "niggle" to describe an african american baby was an african american adult. In fact the "n bomb" itself is now mostly used by black people, with guidos and rednecks following far behind.

But at least you do agree and have heard it's used in this way. It's happening, though, for sure, and how we react is unclear.

I guess the interesting question raised here b/w me and Confuzatron is whether we should avoid certain words once racists appropriate them. I see his point that it's kinda like the tail wagging the dog if we go down that road.

But I do not think it's valid to say that the n-bomb is no longer used in a racist way by racists. And there's a lot of evidence everywhere that says otherwise.

I don't think it is widely used by anyone in that context. The guy I know who said it was joking around.

I never requested anyone stop using any word. I said I found the word troubling for what racists have done with it and that I avoid it (and that many magazines and newspapers do the same).

Most offensive words are only such because morons use them as such. If you like it, use it. But don't get offended because someone shows you that people are doing this. To be clear, you're getting offended that I'm "troubled" by the usage of a word which is being used by racists to describe African American babies.

And again I didn't ask people to stop using it. I just said it's troubling due to what some folks have done with it. Nothing you or I say here changes the fact that racists are still (mis)using the word and that there's a controversy around it now. I like that at least we agree that these people doing this are ignorant morons.

And since this is off topic here, if you want to continue this conversation via email, I'd be happy to do so.