A comedian said ‘straight white male' is this century’s 'N-word’ and then everyone shut him down

There are few words in the English language more offensive, more racially charged than the n-word.

Bu comedian Josh Denny says there’s a new term on that level of offensive:

’Straight White Male’.

In a tweet, he wrote:

’Straight White Male’ has become this century’s N-Word. It’s used to offend and diminish the recipient based on assumption and bias. No difference in the usage.

And then he clarified his statement by talking about Martin Luther King.

Dictionary.com was one of the first to unpack the problem with Denny’s statement.

Followed by the rest of the internet.

Kima Jones waded in.

And fellow comedian Ian Karmel tried to show him the light:

Screenwriter Mark Hughes was stronger in his criticism, calling him ’tone deaf’.

Others talked about the oppressive context upon upon which the n-word was conceived.

Even those who initially agreed with the sentiments of the tweet (that labels are bad) emphasised that the comparison was wrong - that context is everything.

Altogether now: context is everything.

This isn’t the first time he’s compared the N-word to something. In a tweet from 2014, he compared the term to the phrase ’open mic-er’.

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