On 3/21/06, Guettarda guettarda@gmail.com wrote:
Actually it does matter who uses a word. It's all about context - the word "nigger" is acceptable when used by black people but not by white people because it's one thing to mock yourself and another to be mocked by someone else. The level of offense is different when used by someone from another oppressed/disempowered group. Of course, Fenian isn't anywhere near as offensive a term, as far as I know.
My point is - it's not acceptable in a user name (or probably user page either) by anyone on Wikipedia, regardless of their membership of any particular group. We're definitely not into treating different races differently!
Steve