I bet 75% of the people on the Eagles roster have used the N word in the locker room. It's just only wrong if a white person says it...which is oddly racist.
Before I get flamed, I'm definitely not defending Cooper. I think he's wrong for what he did.
Ever hear of a homonym or slang?
Of course, but I don't understand how it's SO offensive if a white guy says it, but if a black guy says it to them then it actually means a good thing? I know it's not okay to call people racist terms, and the N word is definitely a racist term. I just don't understand when/why it became for black people to call other black people the N word and it's okay? Indians don't go around calling each other Redskins.
Edit: And I do understand the context in which someone is saying it DOES matter. I just think that if it was such a terrible, most offensive thing someone could possibly say, then why do they say it themselves?
If Cooper walked into a locker room and said to a black teammate in a genuinely warm tone, "hello my n---a," and they got upset about it, then what you're talking about might have some validity as a topic of discussion.
But that isn't what happened. Cooper used the word to mean it's most racist meaning. His intention for it was to carry the full racist context.
It being ok for a black person to use it in a clearly non-racist context does not mean it's ok for Cooper to use in a clearly racist context.
Cooper deserves the grief he gets. It's a good thing for society to see it happen. Kids who are being brought up by otherwise racist parents need to see that being racist isn't going to be quietly tolerated in our society. Let's not try to spin this into some argument about non-racist use of the word. That doesn't apply to what happened.