interesting. i'm from quebec and i almost never see the fact that we do this referenced anywhere.

That's a funny article.

About the N-word, though, I do agree that "repression" makes it taboo and therefore attractive, but it's qualitatively different than something like saying "f*ck" or "tabernacle." As Kai Chang pointed out, As it's commonly used, "PC" is a deliberately imprecise expression (just try finding or writing a terse, precise definition) because its objective isn't to communicate a substantive idea, but simply to sneer and snivel about the linguistic and cultural burdens of treating all people with the respect and sensitivity with which they wish to be treated. Thus, the Herculean effort required to call me "Asian American" rather than "chink" is seen as a concession to "the PC police", an unsettling infringement on the free-wheeling conversation of, I suppose, "non-chinks". Having to refer to black folks as "African Americans" rather than various historically-prevalent epithets surely strikes some red-blooded blue-balled white-men as a form of cultural oppression.

He goes on to link the actual term PC to Chinese history and observe that in both the Maoist and imperial contexts, the key point to observe is that "PC" denotes alignment with state power, which I found pretty fascinating.

But you get what I'm saying. Black folks asking for the N-word to be abolished are not "oppressing" white people, and it's white privilege that leads white people to perceive it that way. As long as campaigns against it get some white people to start to see that? I think they're worth it.

And then there's the issue that I don't think black folks' expressing desire to not have to hear the word should be contingent on whether white people are willing to give it to them. But that's a larger issue and I've gone on long enough :)

No doubt, with America's sexual repression and Quebec's church-driven oppressiveness, the forbidding of language was within a larger context of social/political oppression, in ways that the N-Word is not.. and that's an important distinction to make. Obvs nobody here is saying that repressing the word involves oppressing white people who use it. But the point is, even when the respective words are prohibited for totally different reasons, the effect of the prohibition is the same.

And of course you're preaching to the choir on the "PC" thing, playing the PC card has always been a sleight of hand used to duck out of responsibility for your words and actions.. much like the Hipster Irony gambit I mapped out a while back.

But that takes us the crux of what I'm saying here: by narrowing our focus down to a word instead of stepping back to address whatever bigger things are driving the usage of the word, we're playing right into the hands of those who play that PC game. It's the approach least likely to make a difference in that regard, seems to me.

And then there's the issue that I don't think black folks' expressing desire to not have to hear the word should be contingent on whether white people are willing to give it to them.

Okay, but If the desire expressed is a desire for white people to stop doing something, that may be a bit of a catch-22? :)

(Also just to be clear, my take on repression increasing its attractiveness applies to young Black people using the word too)

Google Trends shows that the nations who most search for "sex" are the ones with the most sexually repressive cultures

please help me and teach me to sex.