When are the use of racial slurs deemed "acceptable"?

Only if in an official inquiry, or reporting an incident where the slur is used as evidence against a person who has use the term, IE if you must quote someone to report the incident. This is the ONLY time I would allow this type of ignorance.

I'm going to be on the side of NEVER on this one. Regardless if you said it, or if you are repeating the words of someone, you should always take the higher road and just remove that sort of speech from your vocabulary.

Never. Simple. Treat people with respect and dignity.

Well I would caution you not to watch Django Unchained or listen to just about any modern day rap artist. It is a dangerous situation now a days. A person could be signing along to a song by Kanye West and have said many of offensive things without realizing it. But as you say, is this ok? Personally, I don't use such words. I don't repeat them as they are even difficult to say such a word. I do recall something like this being posted a long time ago. It was similar in making the point the point of repeating such words.

NEVER!

MSgt Curtis Ellis

Good question.

I took a "Diverse Cultures" class in college which was on Fort Riley, KS and many of the students were service members. The instructor, who was actually a holder of a PhD in her field has each student say a racist slur for a group of people on the first day of class. This was a protected in environment and no one complained. The instructor was also an African-American woman not that mattered but what really mattered the most of all was her credentials and the class which was being taught. So I think its okay in a class room environment for the purposes of education however, be forewarned, I have found many young Soldiers to be in possession of very thin skin and the Army is partly to blame for that. I was once accused of saying something racist when an African-American Soldier heard my say "food stamps" aka, government food assistance at work. In the end, this Soldier was very uneducated and ignorant unlike myself and she was set straight. I also turned it around on her because she assumed since I was not "black" I must have been saying something racist.

I am trying to look at this from every angle. My instinct is to say "Never" but as you said, it appears all around us. I know society as a whole plays a huge part to what we perceive as racial slurs. Individual cultures also push these perceptions. Many people have a hard time understanding cross culture references and they inadvertently say something that is perceived as a racial slur.

Racial slurs occur when one wants to convey emotion, disdain, or even hate. These words are meant to highlight a point, although they tend to overshadow it. So honestly, if you ever want to be taken seriously don't ever use them.

On a side track.

What I think funny is we use the term "Race" to define different Humans. It is a social statement because genetically and biologically there is only one race, the Human Race. We, as perceptive creatures, use our eyes to sense and judge almost everything. That means other humans too. We also compete with each other constantly. Trying to make ourselves feel superior by making others feel inferior is common in the Human Race. We use color of skin, religion, region born, sex, age and almost any physical attribute to employ a feeling of superiority just for us being us. It is one of the human races given flaws that repeats itself over and over again.

How we show this is Racial slurs. Offensive words, that when said, mean the speaker is better then recipient because they are this and the commenter is that.

Problem is, we are all in the same boat. Our lives are fleeting compared to the Universe. Think of the power Humans would have if we all worked together, instead of competing against each other.

But it will never happen as we are Human. It is that competition that defines us, and has defined us for centuries.

Never appropriate.

MSgt Curtis Ellis 40 years ago, Soldiers in A/--/--company thought they were being cute w/ a friend of theirs. I found it was distasteful, but the subject always played along.