Profitability

AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Is it ever OK to tweet that a girl’s a “slut”? How about using an offensive name for gays on Facebook? Or texting a racial slur? Most young people think it’s all right when friends are joking around with each other, according to a new poll.

Jaded by the Internet free-for-all, teens and 20-somethings shrug off offensive words and name-calling that would probably appall their parents, teachers or bosses. And an Associated Press-MTV poll shows they don’t worry much about whether the things they tap into their cellphones and laptops could reach a wider audience and get them into trouble.

Seventy-one percent say people are more likely to use slurs online or in text messages than in person, and only about half say they are likely to ask someone using such language online to stop.

“On Twitter, everybody’s getting hit hard. Nobody really cares about nobody’s feelings,” said Kervin Browner II, 20, a junior at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. “You never know how bad it hurts people because they don’t say anything.”

But young people who use racist or sexist language are probably offending more people than they realize, even in their own age range. The poll of 14- to 24-year-olds shows a significant minority are upset by some pejoratives, especially when they identify with the group being targeted.

That, and the “you offended me, go directly to sensitivity training, do not pass go, do not collect $200,” or the “stamping out bigotry and fill-in-the-blank-ism,” industry is very lucrative.  Until that industry dissipates on its own, or its leaders get sent to Federal prison for wire and mail fraud (Hint to the next Republican President), these jokes will never be just jokes.

Among African-American youth, however, 60 percent said they would be offended by seeing the N-word used against other people.

Somehow, that does not preclude them from using it among and about themselves.