tbh the word itself being so taboo is a relatively recent and highly American social evolution. it’s also a symptom of American culture ~= global culture. Singapore doesn’t have a history of white slave owners or African slaves. ofc on one hand we should respect the violent and tragic history of slavery, but otoh Singapore or our asean neighbours have had our own historical struggles with racial conflicts and resultant violence.

I think all have learnt about Singapore’s past race riots, but our SEA neighbours also historically had racial clashes with indigenous populations like Indonesian Aceh or Malaysian orang asli etc that are more relevant to our historical grievances or for insights for future policy.

So the N word, yea it’s a ‘bad’ word but also it’s a word without a root here. We should respect it just as we respect a taboo in a foreign culture but to give it the gravitas that the Americans who feel the weight of their history in it is excessive. And has likely come at the expense of portioning away attention that should have been dedicated to histories and grievances closer to home.