#574: -  The totalitarian aspect was fully and comprehensively explained. People's feelings are not an exclusively racial issue, no doubt many people of Pakistani descent aren't bothered about the word unless it's used offensively, some are. Like us and other groups  they're all individuals in that respect. Indeed some White people are hysterically and irrationally oversensitive to the mere use of words such as Paki and nigger due to the current obsession with race issues. If anyone knowingly uses such words offensively they should be dealt with in proportion to the actual nature and specific circumstances of the case, not grossly disproportionately punished due to modish obsessions by the authorities and establishment with ethnic issues. My right to use this or any word is exactly equal to anyone else's right to object. I will put my case using reasoned argument, others will put theirs. Although no-one has supplied any sort of cogent argument against using these words in a non-offensive context, apart from fabricated statements about what all people in a specific racial/cultural group think.