Jo’s Cafe

I wake up thinking about these things …

Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them!
~Nathaniel Hawthorne

If someone calls you a bitch - does that make you one?

No.

If someone calls you a bitch - does it hurt you?

Only if you let it.

Words have power only given to them by the user and receiver.   The power the user has is only balanced by its effect on the receiver.

If someone calls me a bitch - I laugh.  The user’s power is erased by my laughter.

Power -

What words do you give power to by your reactions?

nig·ger /ˈnɪgər/ [nig-er] Pronunciation Key
—Usage note The term nigger is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War. Definitions 1a, 1b, and 2 represent meanings that are deeply disparaging and are used when the speaker deliberately wishes to cause great offense. Definition 1a, however, is sometimes used among African-Americans in a neutral or familiar way. Definition 3 is not normally considered disparaging—as in “The Irish are the niggers of Europe” from Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments—but the other uses are considered contemptuous and hostile.
–noun
1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.
      a. a black person.
      b. a member of any dark-skinned people.
2. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant, etc.
3. a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by blacks; a person who is economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised.

[Origin: 1640–50; < F nègre < Sp negro black]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

How about we stop giving this word power - on both sides?