Catspaw: Wish I was as eloquent as you, but here goes. You said a number of very fine things and I strongly agree with all of them. But, as NightOwl pointed out above in her(?)comment about Katlaughing and books, words have power. Words and expressions have a power to move, just as yours did cat, and they are a very, very strong weapon. There are two ways that we can deal with these words, the words like WOP, Nigger, Coon ,Dago, Frog, Jungle Bunny, Nightfighter (these are extremely powerful words, you say one of these to someone and see what the reaction would be). We can say them all the time and in time they would lose there power. This can be illustrated by swear words such as 'bugger' and 'bloody', words that at one time were shocking, but with use have now become less so. As is 'fuck' getting that way, repeated overuse and American movies are sort of taking away the power to shock. I can see in 100 years your maiden aunt coming round to tea and her greeting you:"Ooo you handsome motherfucker, I haven't seen you in a goddamned motherfucking age."
to whit you reply:
"Come in in you motherfucker and take your motherfucking sonofabitch coat off."
humm so we can go around using these words all the time and they would lose their power?
No, I don't think so. but the slow censorship of these words and the fostering of an attitude that makes these words repugnant to use so they are slowly forgotten is the best option.
another thing, you said that Richard Pryor stoped using 'nigger' after "...he had seen black people in their own land." Is the United States not their own land as well?