Words

Hearing racial epithets and gay slurs kinda annoys me. Except I don't like the word slur. Makes it as if the person saying it is directing it towards someone in a mean way with the purpose of offending a person. But then again that is what those words do. So maybe slur is the right word. Regardless, I dislike it all. And I feel like sport culture in the United States has made the use of these words more prevalent. 

Of course I could blame all those rappers and let that be the end of it. But I choose not to. I think that kids look up to athletes more than musicians. They see men and women who take care of their bodies and enjoy a profession where their job is to play a game. A few times this year, the word faggot was seen uttered by famous players. While the analysis was way overblown I bet this word is thrown around in the locker rooms all the time. I don't necessarily dislike the word because of what it means to gay people. That is part of it. But I figure it's a mean word same as any racial epithet. So it falls into the same classification. 

The confusing part to me is that I don't like the word nigga or any other form of it. But my favorite rappers use the word regularly in their rhymes. And if I stop listening to my favorite rappers, I might end up with very little music listen to. So I keep on with it. I have a choice but I choose to listen still. So that's pretty contradictory. 

Maybe what I'm trying to say is to not direct any of these offensive words to anyone. And although sports stars are not meant to be role models, they are. They should be careful. And we should be careful to follow the good and not the bad. And to not overanalyze when Kobe or Joakim  let's a word slip. They messed up. Shit happens. Just learn from their mistake. 

That is all