That’s my point. Context is key. Why are they saying the word? Are they doing it to put someone down racially (in this case, yes) or are they, for example, just reporting on what was said? In that situation if someone says the actual word, does that make them racist? Terms like “the N word” or putting asterisks in place of some letters is pretty pointless isn’t it? It’s not as if someone can verbally abuse a black person by calling them “n word” instead of using the actual word and think it’s fine because they avoided saying the actual word.
Many people are not comfortable using slurs, so they use a place holder.
The N word should not be up for debate. It’s a sick relic that no one should ever use.
Not everything needs to be debated - do you want to debate the merits of drunk driving as well?
You seem to have missed the point…
No, but it’s a matter of good/bad form, IMO.
For example, if John used the actual word in his report, I would personally feel disrespected unless he were reading verbatim from a transcript. Any other utterance of that word from John would be offensive to me, even though I know that Pollock isn’t racist & his intentions were not malicious.
Or if I were discussing Lars Sullivan’s insults towards gay people, I wouldn’t feel comfortable using those slurs, even if it’s just facts in a story. As an outsider to that community, it’s bad form for me to use those words even though I’m not personally homophobic. 
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Yup
It’s weird that this even has to be explained anymore
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People that aren’t offended extremely easily, especially when concerning something that’s only considered offensive because it reminds them of something that’s bad rather than it actually being bad on its own when you look at things in context, usually don’t see things the same way as someone who is actually offended extremely easily. Wouldn’t say either are wrong but logic is on the side of people who aren’t offended by how a word sounds as context dictates how a situation should be reacted to.
If you want to say that calling someone “the n word” in order to racially abuse them, someone reporting on the story by repeating the words verbatim and someone rapping along to a song are all on the same level then that’s you but I choose to differentiate each situation based on context. Hulk Hogan’s rant was racist, Orton’s usage wasn’t (there is a difference between the “a” and the “er”, thank Hip Hop, it’s basically two different words. You can argue he shouldn’t be using either but you can’t pretend he said one when it was the other), Tessa’s is more in the Hogan category and that’s why people referencing Orton when talking about Tessa’s situation aren’t being very smart about it in my opinion.
If people want to suggest it’s all the same thing then, as I said, that’s you but other people breaking things down to what was actually going on and figuring out people’s intent isn’t an outlook that’s new or wrong as it can be logically backed up rather than simply saying “I feel it’s this way so it must be”. It’s weird that this even has to be explained anymore…
There is an awesome south park episode on this. You are just not getting it buddy.
Oh I get it. Safer not to say it and just avoid the word regardless of if it’s actually racist or not because people will pretend it was anyway…
You’ve converted me, Tessa Blanchard racially abusing someone is definitely in the same bracket as Randy Orion’s usage. No questions asked.
You have spent way too much time thinking about this word
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How is spitting on someone racist? By the way it see you believe Paige getting pregnant at 18 opens it up for her to be slut shamed.
It’s just an interesting conversation to have about people’s fears and feelings towards words and how words differ in different contexts. Not everything needs to be a war where everyone’s offended by discussion.
It seems like you just really want to be able to say “that word”
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It was an interesting discussion a decade ago. You said nothing new.
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It doesn’t matter if the discussion isn’t new. Incidents like this crop up, then the discussion will pop up. If you feel uncomfortable by it then don’t participate. There’s no need to say “hey, don’t discuss anything, everything is offensive…”.
It’s also very relevant to this thread seeing as a comparison was made to Orton. If you think that racially abusing someone (which Tessa apparently did) is the same as Orton not racially abusing someone then I don’t think you’re really cut out to decide what’s what. Seems like you just want to, lazily, label it as something and run away from the situation.
I don’t think it is up to the offender to decide the impact of their actions. That is up to the victim. And it is definitely not up to uninvolved parties to to decide the severity of the incident
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I’m pretty sure the word, no matter what the context, has been offensive since long before anyone on this forum has been alive - so I think we can close the book on that conversation.
Additionally, I see this “people are too easily offended” argument more times that I would like to in 2020 - people should be more focused on how they can be allies and understand the impact the words they choose have vs. trying to figure out how close to the line they can get without crossing. Even if it’s coming from a place of curiosity it just comes across as disingenuous and yes, offensive.
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Spitting on someone and using the N word is racist
I never said it’s okay to slut shame her. I just said HHH made a bad joke. I was simply bringing up Paiges last to show why a) HHH is making this joke about her and not Bayley and b) why he may have thought it was funny. It doesn’t make it right and he should know better
Then I guess all discussion should stop whether it’s condemning Tessa’s actions or not seeing as none of us or the majority of the people on twitter were involved? As far as we’re all concerned, being racially abusive is the same as not being racially abusive… we can’t say otherwise.
Seriously, that’s laughable but if you’re going to pretend that actually tying to put someone down racially isn’t worse than simply saying the word then simply because you don’t want to discuss things then that’s you but that’s also dumb as hell.
The discussion comes across as offensive maybe because you’re extremely, easily offended…? It’s coming close to the line so you’re just going to react as if it definitely did cross the line? Come on now. How very twitter of you.