So here's this thread

[conuly]

In which this teacher earnestly wants a word to substitute for "chink" in Midsummer Night's Dream, and one person suggests kink which doesn't mean the same thing.

And on the one hand, I'm sure they all have their hearts in the right place, but on the other hand, maybe they should collectively teach a different play instead. Shakespeare wrote plenty of comedies, just pick a different one off the shelf.

Comments

[silveradept]

I... no. If you want to worry about racism in Shakespeare, you have plenty more opportunities, including in that play, to have a discussion about it. When Shakespeare wants someone to be a racist, he doesn't do it subtly.

Because racists will always adopt some piece of regular language to have that additional meaning and code to it, there's no way of excluding the language, only bringing the hammer when it's being used in the racist way.