You ' re missing out on the cultural context . It ' s just the idea that language is living and changing , and that this is a word that should die out of the English vernacular . It ' s an expression that , as a white person , aligns you with a certain mindset you probably don ' t want to be associated with . So , hey , you ' re free to use it but you ' ll be judged harshly . Likewise , the expression paki doesn ' t mean anything in the US but carries a lot of baggage in the UK . I don ' t go telling the English that Paki is just fine to use , because I understand that language is more than just words . Why nonnative speakers of the language feel a need to debate this is confusing to me . If you could shed light on it , I ' d be interested to hear it .