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Don't use our word!

Who ever said the world turns on its axis? With some of the madness that goes on, I’m sure it would turn on its heels if it could.

Take this little gem form South Africa:

Irvin Khoza, chief of the local organising committee for the 2010 World Cup, made use of the K word (if you’ve not got it yet, add an A, two Fs, an I and a R and you should be up to speed) when referring to journalists harping on about the inability of the organising committee to organise the 2010 WC.

So naturally there was the initial “WHAT? How dare you use that word,” before certain ‘intellectuals’ had come out and said it was okay for him to use the word in question because…. He’s black, meant no malice and isn’t white. Where this leaves those whose ethnicity is not so classically defined will require further investigation.

Now really, I have to question the whole bunch, Khosa for using the word and the response from, as the article explains, black intellectuals.
Looking at the connotation of the word, the context in which it’s used and by who is totally meaningless.
The word was, during the apartheid era and beyond, pretty much used to refer to black people in a derogatory and inferior manner. That meaning hasn’t changed.
He was quoted as saying "I know the word also has another meaning, but in the context in which I used it, it refers to dubious character and unreliability."
Okay… If I decide I want to use it in the context of referring to someone as my friend, I can go around saying, “Hello K*****” and that would be acceptable… and apparently they would be expected to understand the context. Well okay, not me, I’m not allowed to use that word in any context but if it was a Black person – fine I guess.

One of the ‘intellectuals’ went so far as to say (and I quote the article that quotes him…), “However a member coming from an oppressor class cannot use it because it is obviously offensive.”
Now I’m happy I’m writing this because I’m otherwise speechless. I have to ask… So how would the ‘oppressor class’ view the ‘oppressed class’ if they went about calling each other by this name.

In the US, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and some rappers have spoken out about the use of the N word by African-Americans. Why…? Because it’s derogatory no matter who uses it. Where one brother saying it might mean it as a non derogatory name, surely it’ll just confirm the derogatory nature of the word to the ‘oppressor class’ who will therefore look down upon the brothers concerned… Oh wait, they do… I wonder why?

Listen folks, if a word has associated derogatory connotations and is deemed politically incorrect to use it, that applies to everyone, no exceptions!

Anyway, you decide:
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080221114451189C215555

p.s. as a member of the ‘oppressor class’ I can only assume that, in the context in which I do so, I can refer to the “K-word” and “N-word” without causing a storm in a teacup.