4 Things You Should Teach Your Kids About Racism Right Now

[Orrex]

38. Here's an easy way to think of it.

Comedians have a phrase to describe the sentiment that good jokes aren't made at the expense of disadvantaged people. The phrase is "don't punch down," and it means that you don't beat on people who, in general, have it worse.

Something similar is at work here: using a racial epithet against a person of color is "punching down." It's also why African American people an use "the N-word" but white people, in most contexts, cannot.

When white people use "the N-word," it is--automatically--an insult by way of centuries of ugly racist subjugation. It might not be meant that way in a certain context, but that's both the connotation and denotation of the word by default. Sorry, but that's the way it is: it is inherently "punching down."

Assuming that you're a white person, there is simply no word that a person of color can use against you that has the same impact, history, and back-story as "the N-word." I defy you to identify such a word, because "cracker," "honky," "mayo," "white boy," etc. aren't even in the ballpark.

Complaining about this, and the fact that white people aren't as free to use the word, makes the complainer look like racist who's angry that he can't be as openly racist as he'd like--even if that's not actually the case.