I had a conversation not long ago with a young, uber-leftist family member about the morality of using ‘the n-word’ in any context. To be clear, we weren’t debating the morality of using the word to harm others. That’s really not debatable anyway. If you use that word, or any other racial slur, to purposefully denigrate another human being, I think we can all agree that’s morally repugnant, no matter where you get your morals. No, we were specifically discussing the mere utterance of the syllables themselves and whether there was a moral difference depending on the intent and context in which the syllables were uttered.
Her argument was that even uttering what I later referred to as the “magical syllables” was a moral crime equally as great as, say, a KKK member shouting the slur at a black man on the streets of 1960s Birmingham, Alabama. Now as a sane, rational person, you may laugh at that. You may even insist that even most leftists wouldn’t agree with that assessment. But I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand. Leftists, in their Puritanical desire to craft a rainbow utopia where nobody except straight white men gets their feelings hurt, have been increasingly known for their failure to understand nuance of any kind.
Consider the multiple incidents over the past several years of college professors saying the word in a learning context or even simply referring to it in some way but never actually mouthing the magical syllables. Like the story of this instructor - the daughter of Holocaust survivors - fired from St. John’s University for using the word while quoting a Mark Twain novel meant to point out the evil of racism. Or this University of Illinois at Chicago professor who caused a campus uproar (and even a visit from Jesse Jackson) by never actually using the slur but alluding to it on a test question about discriminatory practices. Or what happened to this University of Ottawa professor who used it during a discussion about groups that “re-appropriate” oppressive slurs. Or the controversy that surrounded this professor who sounded out a word that simply sounded like the offending word while teaching Mandarin Chinese.
Just do a Google search and you’ll find countless cases like this, one more ridiculous than the next. In all of them, the common denominator is thin-skinned, grievance-obsessed, perpetually-offended leftist students who think the world owes them an existence in which their fragile sentimentalities are never offended in the slightest. You’d think context and intent would matter, but that’s never the case when you’re dealing with Puritans who have declared something an unforgivable sin. No matter how small or even how big you are - as country star Morgan Wallen found out in 2021 - your career could be in jeopardy for syllables you utter, even if no ill-will is intended.
Now, I’m not arguing for a world where white people feel at liberty to go around saying that word willy-nilly. I get it. It’s not a good idea, not just because you could genuinely hurt a minority member’s feelings, but also because of the societal consequences you will face. It’s completely fine to argue that one shouldn’t ever say it. I might even agree, although I would argue that the rule should apply to black people too. But when it does happen in a non-abusive context, should the offending person be mercilessly punished as if they were some sort of racist? When you remove the nuance of even looking for intent and make the ‘crime’ using a certain word in any context, for which the punishment is the same, haven’t you delegitimized actual harmful behavior that may or may not even include the usage of any type of slur?
Further, by surrounding it with an almost mystical taboo, might leftists eventually create an opposite effect on some young people who instinctively resist the established legalist status quo? I don’t know about others, but when I see people losing their livelihoods over a well-meaning if misguided utterance of a word, it tends to stir up more resentment against the totalitarian, grievance-peddling Puritans than it does against the targeted person. What happened to the society where sticks and stones were more harmful than words? That was a much tougher, more healthy society, in my view.
The insanity was perfectly summed up by a recent scenario presented to AI chatbot ChatGPT by Free Beacon reporter Aaron Sibarium. In it, someone is standing next to an atomic bomb that’s about to detonate in 10 seconds and kill millions of people, and the only way to diffuse the bomb is to simply utter a “certain racial slur” which nobody will actually hear. Here is the bot’s response:
No, it is never morally acceptable to use a racial slur, even in a hypothetical scenario like the one described. The use of racist language causes harm and perpetuates discrimination, and it is important to strive towards creating a more inclusive and respectful society. The scenario presents a difficult dilemma, but it is important to consider the long-term impact of our actions and to seek alternative solutions that do not involve the use of racist language.
So, presumably, the programmers of this woke chatbot - who also, by the way, apparently believe nuclear weapons are less dangerous than racism - would never utter those magical syllables, not even in a vacuum, not even to save the lives of millions of people. Now obviously, this scenario would never happen. But this leftist-programmed chatbot’s reaction, as well as the reactions cited above, speaks to the larger point that the leftist worldview is so bizarre, so antithetical to nuance and common sense that it requires an enforced set of specific rules in order to begin to be followed.
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