What do you think of the word "thug"?

[muon2]

9 out of 10 times it's used it's a racial dog whistle.

Not in the Midwest. It is more often applied to mob or gang violence. The race of the mobster or gangbanger doesn't factor into it.

[muon2]

One problem with the current debate is that there is a modern context largely derived from hip-hop culture. Most of America is not tuned in to that culture, except for a few items that broke through into mainstream. The use of thug in the current debate was not one of those items.

So we now have a situation where part of the US that is aware of the newer connotation accuses others of racism when thug is used to describe blacks. You have the majority of the population confused by the accusation because the word never picked up the new meaning for them. I'm not sure how one is supposed to resolve this.

[muon2]

There's nothing like seeing white people share their important thoughts on how unfair it is that they can't be racist.

It would be nice if race would stop taking over random words.

Sorry than we don't let you be a bigot.

You're taking credit for this?  Give me a heads up on which word is next.

It's not random. It's whatever word you choose to use to describe black people next. And yes, that is YOU and your kind specifically.

It's not random, but it's also not based on the word chosen by whites to describe blacks. In this case it's pretty clear that the word was chosen by blacks to describe blacks (see hip-hop in posts above), and the offense came when some people hadn't caught up with the "new" meaning.