At 10:01 AM 6/9/2003, you wrote:
>>http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs
>
>I would express a concern about the title. "Ethnic" is certainly more
>comprehensive than "racial", so that part is a clear improvement. On the
>other hand I find "slurs" to be more POV than "epithets". I see a need to
>maintain a perspective of time. What may be a slur to-day may not always
>have been so. When the Doukhobors were given that name it was intended as
>a slur by the Tsarists; eventually they assumed the name themselves and
>the pejorative nature of the word dropped away. Contrariwise, black
>Americans were once called "colored", and that term was generally accepted
>in its time. It has since evolved away from acceptability, but it was
>certainly an improvement over "nigger".
>
>Eclecticology

Well, the problem here is that there are two terms in common usage, ethnic
slur and racial epithet. While I suppose you are correct that ethnic
epithet would be more NPOV than either of the other two, it would be a
contrived phrase that would not show up if someone was doing a search on
the topic (as they will type in racial epithet or ethnic slur). Aside from
that, I think the way to handle your issue in the article (that not all
slurs have always been so, and vice versa) is simply to add a note to those
words for which it is relevant.


-----
Dante Alighieri
dalighieri@digitalgrapefruit.com

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their
neutrality in times of great moral crisis."
-Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321

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