“This is Baltimore’s DEI mayor commenting on the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge,” the user wrote alongside a clip of Scott speaking. “It’s going to get so, so much worse. Prepare accordingly.”
The post was immediately fact checked and even came with an advisory.
“Brandon Scott was elected as Mayor of Baltimore in 2020 with > 70% of the vote,” the advisory reads. “He did not come in to office through any DEI practices, appointments, etc.” This isn’t the first instance of a racist swapping out the N-word with “DEI”—but it certainly is one of the most brazen.
But the “idea” here is that the n-word is hurtful and there’s absolutely never a proper use for it.
The idea that the racists have is that anyone not white is inferior, that’s a whole different argument than just using a word that only has the purpose of hurting people.
I disagree, I think words having powerful, negative meaning like that is a symptom of a deeper problem, not a root problem in and of itself. We shouldn’t be tackling the problem of people using words, we should be tackling the problem of why do they want to use those words in the first place?
It’s not the root problem, but that’s what I mentioned as a separate issue.
As another one put it ¿Por que no los dos?
The word has no place in society, but also the reasons one chooses to use it is problematic. It’s not so much “banned” but it’s a “fuck around and find out” word. There are repercussions for the words you choose to use, just like if a presidential candidate started tossing “fuck” around a lot. That word isn’t banned, but you know that would kill their campaign completely.
You’re not wrong, but people who hold a conservative ideology tend to react very poorly when you tell them that their emotional fear/disgust response to the existence of minorities is the problem.