"When someone calls you a c***, that's fine," Ferdinand said. "When someone brings your colour into it, it takes it to another level."
From following the John Terry trial, you'll find, summed up in one sentence, a fantastic example of how language (and associated attitudes) change, often within a generation. I remember watching 'Only Fools and Horses' when I was a nipper, and being a little surprised to watch both Del and Rodney describing a shop (and its owner) as a "paki" shop. What is interesting to see is how societal offence at racial insults has shot up in the last twenty years, whilst offence at the dreaded C word seems to be reducing - among professional footballers at least.
While considering this increased aversion to racism, it might be worthwhile looking at what contemporary society does find acceptable to have a pop at. We looked at people with lower social economic status (when we looked at the Urban Dictionary definition of 'Meff', which I can't link to here), and you can find a great discussion of the word 'Chav' here, along with a lot more links that I'd like you to read through.
Just so you can use your brains - start looking at the 'Gypsy' series of programs on Channel 4. What might some people find offensive about these programs? What counter arguments might be made?
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