askchapo

I'm not from the global north either, and where I come from we have a very loose attitude towards insults and stuff.

Growing up I didn't think much of it, but now that I'm older and I've interacted with more people, I realize that sometimes using words that refer to a certain category of people as an insult can be very hurtful.

Of course, insulting the person in front of you is hurtful to them, specially if you're implying there's something wrong with them that they can't change or that they might feel self conscious about (like calling them fatty or ugly), but we all know that, I hope. Much more importantly, there's the people who have nothing to do with it, but who "catch strays", when other people use something about them as an insult. It implies there's something wrong with being who they are, like using gay to mean uncool, or the r-word to mean dumb, or using an ethnicity's stereotype to imply someone is being like what people think about this ethnicity. This does two things: it is violence against someone who's part of that community who might overhear, and more insidiously, reinforces the belief that being x=bad, justifying their oppression and current condition.

We must work to break down these systems of oppression, and the first step is to break them down within our minds, such that we're not perpetuating them unconsciously. When we talk, we must be mindful of people who by just being who they are, already are oppressed by a system that has no place for them, and that wastes no opportunity in reminding them of that fact. This includes, but is not limited to, not using slurs, even when we're being jerks to each other for the fun of it, which I really understand.

Dunno if this rambling helps clear it out.