Nigger is a word. Like all words, it's meaning and significance depends on context. If you slur somebody as being a nigger, you are engaging in racial harassment. If you use nigger as I am currently using it, referring to a word, you are not engaging in racial harassment. In the same vein, it's entirely possible to engage in racial hatred without using any taboo words at all. The idea that a word itself, without context, can be beyond the pale is ludicrous. The issue seems to me to really be one about tribal identification. The rule of not saying nigger in any context (or atleast, if you're not black) is ultimately arbitrary, but it can become a touchstone issue for us to claim an identity. The fault line goes like this; any use of the word nigger is racist, prohibition on its use is anti-racist. This has no relation to the actual content of what is being said, as outlined above, it is simply a rule imposed on us that is demanded to be true on the cyclical basis that it is demanded to be true. A shocking example I found of this lately was a US friend who was willing to determine Jimmy Carr (UK comedian) speaking positively about the actual genocide of gypsys during the Holocaust is okay because it's a joke, but a comedian who used the word nigger in a joke would be unacceptable. The issue, quite aside from actual racism or hatred (which undoubtedly has a link, but not a necessary one), is an arbitrary prohibition on the word itself. The strange demand that nigger never be said or communicated is just another example of US cultural imperialism and ironically, in itself, somewhat racist. This is not Black Americans in particular inflicting cultural imperialism on the rest of the world, though they are certainly part of the wider ignorant US cultural forces. I took a 3 day suspension, for engaging in discussion about the word nigger, for 'promoting hatred'. I have not received an apology, and so anticipate this post being reported for an eventual ban. Please report this. Occasional posts exploring this issue will now be the only posts I make on reddit until I am perma-banned, in protest at the cowardice of arbitrary and indefensible judgements. After perma-ban, I'll spend some time reporting every (unproblematic) mention of the word nigger as hatred, to shed light on the utter hypocrisy and baseless argument that it is. I shall not make another account, not for some time at least. Anybody can say nigger. Nobody can engage in racist harassment. Reject nonsense cultural hysteria from the USA, and its child-like philosophical engagement from much of its dumbed-down population. You can say nigger.