Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

...a fellow who hates both names and proper punctuation offers the following defense against an accusation of racism:

i did, using racially charged words doesn’t always make someone a racist, usually it just makes him an asshole. a nice comic by garth ennis called ‘the boys’ makes that point really well. he used that word because he knew it’ll hurt her and he wanted to hurt her but he didn’t want to hurt her because she was black but because he disliked her as a person. her being black is a tool he used to harm her, not the reason he wanted to harm her. you may find this to fine a distinction but i don’t....

You can find the specifics... by typing (or pasting) ‘NK Jemison half savage’ into your favorite search engine.... I’m interested in the general case... the comment seems representative of a common ‘benign’ apologetic... a ‘what’s in one’s secret heart’ defense. Maybe a white dude yells the N-word in traffic because he’s mad the black dude cut him off, but that doesn’t mean the white dude is racist. He’s just mad, and using the most cutting insult that comes immediately to mind.... But we don’t even have to inquire that deeply into the souls of these people.... He used a racial slur, in writing, to belittle a fellow professional.... How was he even able to do that? Because of racism. Without racism and white supremacy, there would be no special valence to the slur.... So the man in question willfully and with consideration availed himself of the tools of racism to better himself at the expense of his target. He knew where the nail came from, and why the board was lying so close to hand. And he fairly leapt to swing it. Deploying the tools of racism to advantage yourself over someone subject to racism simply is racist. It’s what you chose to do: you wanted the Hellmouth working for you, and it did. And if we must discuss your secret heart, your secret heart did nothing to stop you, either in the heat of the moment or the quiet stretches before and after.