Underlying generations of ethnic and racial separation in America is a complex mixture of competition, envy and suspicion of the “other.” Ethnic slurs have been and continue to be used to define and enforce cultural boundaries in the United States.

The number and variety of ethnic slurs and racial epithets in American culture indicate the extraordinary importance placed on group distinctions. The legacy of American slavery includes the use of labels to categorize and dehumanize African Americans, and the effect of other ethnic slurs is similar, though not as virulent. The message to the individual at whom a slur or epithet is directed is that whatever else you may think you are or have worked to become you are nothing more than a “wop” (Italian American) or a “nigger” (African American), and you will be treated as such.

Treatment runs the gamut from whispered slurs and subtle snubs to beatings and murder. These words, even when they are used in jest, change a person into an object and a target.

The use of ethnic slurs in American comedy became a complex and controversial topic in the late twentieth century. Comedians instinctively play on social animosities and fears, and few topics have the explosive charge of ethnic and racial identity. Godfrey Cambridge, Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor used racial epithets and stereotypes in their stand-up comedy routines, first to African American audiences in the 1960s and then, in modified form, to national audiences. Comedy including ethnic slurs, when performed by a member of the group that is usually targeted by the slur can have the effect of bolstering group identity and defusing the power of the slur. On the other hand, comedic or any other use of slurs that gets a wide audience has the side-effect of keeping slurs in circulation, and, it may be argued, giving them the acceptability of use by those who might be most offended. Nonetheless, the most heavily weighted ethnic slur in American culture was used as the title of Dick Gregory’s 1964 autobiography and by the 1990s rap group “NWA—Niggaz With Attitude.” At the same time, it became part of street language in cities between young African American men as a label and a greeting.

Other ethnically oriented comedians also have played with slurs in their comedy routines—for example, Alan King and Jackie Mason among Jewish comedians and the Italian American comedian Pat Cooper.

As much as slurs have been burlesqued and defused, they retain their power. Among other kinds of slurs and insults, they are recognized in American constitutional law as “fighting words” immune from the free-speech protections of the 1 st Amendment. In spite of their currency slurs have been rejected by the educated middle class. After the civil-rights movement and the heightening of ethnic identification, it was considered impolite or “incorrect” to depersonalize a group or individual with a slur. A reaction against the norm of incorrectness began in the late 1980s, when conservative commentators included the ban against ethic slurs among other proscribed behaviors in their critique of political correctness.