Halanna

It appears to me that it's only offensive depending on the ethnicity of the speaker.

African Americans (AA's cause I'm too lazy to type) call each other the N word all the time. I've overheard it in the Wal-Mart parking lot, in popular songs by AA artists, at the shop where my husband works and in movies where nary a protest is heard.

AA's can also call Hispanics or Latin Americans by the N word as a form of greeting.

Hispanics call each other Spic, can call AA's Spic as a form of greeting and for some odd reason call each other the N word.

AA's and Hispanics can call anyone not AA or Hispanic whitey, white boy, cracker, red neck and are somehow given a pass and it's ok.

The only people not allowed to call anyone any ethnic name is a person who is white. Then the protests start, the ACLU becomes involved, people lose their jobs, if anything happens in conjunction with an ethnic slur then it's a hate crime.

I never, whether in public or my husband's work environment hear white people use ethnic slurs. I only hear AA's and Hispanics and other minorities using them.

There is no denying that any ethnic slur is offensive and rude. But really, if it's so offensive and rude, then those very people who find it offensive and rude should stop using it in their everyday language and toward one another. It seems more a case of "do as I say, not as I do".