If I'd been writing about any of this stuff I'd see your point. I totally agree that the ridiculous rows over cultural appropriation and the absolute disaster at Evergreen College (and many other colleges) are about little more than performative outrage and power grabs. But that has nothing to do with the topic I'm writing about here. You can't just smoosh all race related issues into one pot.

While I think that a lot of the fuss over the n-word is overblown, the pain most black people feel is sincere. I know many people who are truly shaken up by this word. People who wouldn't try to get anybody fired, or cancelled or ostracised from their social group for using it, but who would stop listening to any public figure who ever used the word for their own peace of mind.

Of course, in the media, most of what you hear about reactions to the n-word are people freaking out and shrieking for blood, but this is a caricature of how most black people react to the n-word. Most black people are just deeply hurt. And it's that hurt that I'm interested in stopping.