The best word they used was "Privatization". They could have a Russian word, but that would mean that Russians would understand what they were doing. With an English word nobody knew exactly what it means.

I can hear the familiar note of hysteria in your voice, comrade Barrett.

The planet I live on is called the 'real world' - it differs from the one you live on in that its populace consists of all forms of human life and  not just the party-line subscribing, Guardian adoring, Spare Rib devouring nullities with whom you would seem to habitually mix and feel comfortable amongst.  Maybe you ought to spend a few days in the areas I mention where your no doubt very sensitive admonishments of the locals for their 'pernicious' language would land you in a similarly horizontal position to the one you'd find yourself in if you adopted converse behaviour in your own multi-racial neck of the woods.

You might also be interested to know that President Lyndon Baines Johnson - who, by common consent, did more for the well-being of America's black population than any Chief Executive since Lincoln - habitually referred to his Civil Rights legislation as 'nigger bills'. The Barrett World View would presumably decree that he be excoriated as a pernicious racist for all the practical good he did.

Honestly, Richard, sometimes it's hard to believe that you're a real person (then again, perhaps you aren't) so totally do you conform to the stereotype of the smug, self-satisfied, self-righteous leftist.

Sorry, not a valid argument.  Martin Luther King used the word too - precisely because it is a word that is a legacy of slavery.  He used it to add rhetorical force to his attack on the institutions that still advocated racial segregation.

This is an argument about power and privilege.  I as a white, middle class, educated, straight male living in a powerful Western society have never experienced systematic discrimination (and please don't give me that Daily Mail guff about middle class victimhood).  Does that not imply that I have a responsibility to listen to those who have suffered such discrimination, and reflect that experience in the way I use language? 

Which brings us back to the central question - do you think it is right to use as a signifier for a group of people a word that is loaded with connotations of slavery?  Do you not believe that it is for those who are thus signified to have a say in defining the context in which the use of such language is acceptable?

Well, he could presumably be any one of these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Barrett_(musician)
(A bit of advice there: don't call him no n-word or he come back from the grave and go medieval on yo presumably white ass.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Barrett_(lawyer)
(Don't call him no n-word either but for slightly different reasons although the consequences might be similar.)
http://www.richardbarrettartist.co.uk/
(Ah, a Welsh one, we might be getting warmer...)
http://www.ump.co.uk/composer%20pages/barrett.htm
(No, just too improbable, what a silly idea.)

On the other hand searches for Swan Knight just turn up a picture called lohengrin-kitsch, I'm afraid... (not that searches for Oliver Sudden are any more productive!)

It's not my fault. A vision of Ving Rhames in the guise of Marcellus Wallis told me to say it. I was powerless.

"Does Richard Barrett LOOK like a..."
"That's enough, Ollie."
"Oops, yes, sorry."

(In all seriousness - I do hope the 'second degree' was clear. If not and the post has actually caused offence, that was not the intention and I shall gladly moderate myself.)

Of course Richard Barrett isn't a real person. He's played by William Gaunt.
Or at least that's what the UN wants you to think...

Swan knight,

I cannot understand what you are complaining about.
 
If a group of people are upset about a word used to describe them because they feel it has connotations of horrific abuse and oppression of them in the past, why do you want to use it? The only inference I can make is that you want to upset them.
 
This is simply matter of respecting someone elses distress and reacting accordingly.

And I have never been anywhere in the uk where the 'n' word is even close to acceptable, apart from by people who clearly wish that there was more discrimination and oppression. That has been my experience.

And the issue of black people themselves using the word is completely different, surely you must see that. Apart from anything else, by using a word yourself that is
used by others to insult/demean you, you can I think to an extent reclaim the word and with the use of irony implicit in that act, de-fang it, and partially take away the power from those who seek to hurt you with it.

I think so-called PC terminology is about an attempt to undermine the presumptions and prejudices inherent in language used by those with power, often unthinkingly, but very often insultingly, about those with less power.  It is an attempt to shift the point of view from the person speaking to the person spoken about.  Why should this arouse anyone's ire?

Cast your mind back to childhood.  Odds are everyone here had a teacher, an older relative, a bigger and stronger schoolmate or sibling, call you by a nickname you absolutely hated.  The more you objected, the more they would laugh and think it was cute you got angry about it.  Can you not remember the sheer rage you felt at not being taken seriously?  Maybe someone else overheard this nickname and assumed it was a proper one, and started using it as well without intending any pain.  Nevertheless the pain was there.

Now expand that rage and pain beyond an isolated personal event, to centuries of prejudice, fear, hatred and condescension of one group of people against another.  Why is it unreasonable to want to change that?

The exercise in shifting the point of view from the person speaking to the person spoken about is a very useful one, and extends well beyond language.  This is what PC-ness, for lack of a better term, was trying to achieve.  After centuries of talking (hectoring and lecturing), it was trying to introduce the valuable concept of listening.