We've become such a desensitized culture that we throw around words which might be offensive with little or no regard anymore. Using "gay" or calling someone a "fag" started in the early 1980's when AIDS was believed to be caused by homosexuals and for a time, they were demonized completely. Our culture has still not completely gotten over this phase and thus, many times, we call others "gay" or "fags" as a way to belittle and also to build up our own ego. In many cases, people who use these words for malicious intent, meaning they really do use "gay" and "fag" to indicate a sexual preference in a negative light, are people who are usually to some degree homophobic or battling some sort of insecurity or identity crisis and thus feel they must push their internal problems onto others as some form of closure.

In most cases however, the words are just used because they found a way into our collective social subconscious along with calling things we like, among others things, "cool", "hot", and the like. We are often unaware that we are even using these words and usually don't even realzie that we may be potentially offending other people. As a society, we've become strangely, both more politically correct and also much more easy going with regard to words and phrases in and out of context.

As for the N word, this is a much more touchy subject for some. The roots of the negative form of the word can be traced back to the 1960's during the Civil Rights Movement, where the word resurfaced to belittle those of African, West Indian and the like descent, after being largely disgarded for about 100 years. The word originated I believe during the Civil War, or more closely, right after the Civil War during Reconstruction when racial tension was also very high and Jim Crow laws reigned infamously. The word was used to call former slaves still subservient to whites and, even nearly 150 years later, this class struggle is still very touchy. To use the word now as a white person seems to be harkening back to days of slavery, while to use it as a black person seems to mean brotherhood and a kinship among those who were formerly oppressed and still to a degree feel oppressed in certain situations.

All in all, the words have become paradoxically both more offensive and less so as we enter a more and more politically correct age. It remains to be seen if the words will actually cause another shift in our culture or if they will lose the negative undertones they've taken on in this century.

Take care all.