Originally Posted by
Preacher
Exactly.
What so many people forget, is that it's not "just a word." Words are powerful. Words create and destroy. don't believe me? Try getting married without the words, "now I pronounce you husband and wife. (or husband and husband, or wife and wife . . . or whatever it is now a days).
Let's go back and look at how words are used in history, shall we? (I'm referring here to way in which words are used to subjugate people, not to the fact that it was Hitler, I'm not going for a Reductio Ad Hitler argument here).
"Jew"
Three words were introduced to the German language in the lead up to the holocaust. "Untermensch," or "subhuman" was used as a way to dehumanize Jews. "Judenschwein" or "Jewpig" and "Jewsow" were used also to dehumanize the Jews. The last two referenced a common depiction of Jews nursing on a sow. Hitler also pushed "Judenscheisse" or "Jewshit" when he "assigned the lowest possible value to something." Also, "verjudet" or "jewed" when a situation went pear shaped.
Doing this helped dehumanize the Jews in the German eyes to the point that most of them didn't blink when it came to the ghettos and subsequent train rides to the camps. Notice that the key here, was how he used "Jew" and turned the word itself into a derogatory name.
"Fetus"
Now before anyone gets their feathers all ruffled, hear me out. Even though Fetus (also faetus) was used since the 1500's, in medical journals, "baby" and "fetus" was synonymous. For instance, 1897 American Journal of Medical Sciences, page 370, "The circumstance were favorable for the descent of the child, and the head was delivered. . . the child's leg." Speaking of a woman shot while pregnant. "the child was killed by the shot."
However, in the lead up to abortion in law, "baby" was faded out, so that it is no longer a "baby" in the mother's stomach. It is ONLY a "fetus." Baby is not the correct term, and you will not find any medical journals that refer to the baby or child as such until after birth. Why? I submit once again, because using "fetus" dehumanizes the child, which then allows for the medical profession and people all over the country to support what would otherwise be considered murder (the taking of a human life, rather than the removal of a fetus).
Those are but two example. I could use "Jap/Nip" to reference how the American military desensitized serviceman in the Japanese theatre of war, not to mention "Kraut" in the western theatre.
In short, using such words allows the human mind to dissociation the object of those words from similarity to self. the result, is that the "other" becomes wholly other, and no longer in connection with any self-identification. Once that line is crossed, then we begin to accept things being done that we wouldn't otherwise accept.
Thus, when N****r is used, it has the same connotations as above. It's why "boy" "colored" etc. etc. all go in and out of fashion. Because in each period of time, a new way to dissociate and thus dehumanize a person is used.
So for those of you saying "it's just a word." No, it's not. Not by a long shot. Words have meaning, power, and create our reality.