Conservative radio host Dennis Prager defended his use of the word “kike” by insisting that people should also be able to use the uncensored “n-word” in defiance of cultural pressure that makes one slur unacceptable, but not the other.

On Thursday’s edition of The Dennis Prager Show — in an exchange that was flagged by Media Matters — a caller asked Prager why he felt comfortable saying the word “kike” while discussing bigotry, but censored himself by using the term “the n-word” in place of the actual slur.

“You mentioned that President Truman used to use the n-word all the time, And then two seconds later you followed it up with the word kike. Why didn’t you say, like, the k-word?” the caller asked Prager.

“Because the left has made it impossible to say the N-word any longer,” Prager replied, and added “That’s disgusting, it’s a farce. It’s the only word that you can’t say in the English language.”

“Then why is it okay to say the k-word?” the caller asked.

“Because the left doesn’t give a damn about that word,” Prager said, and added “The left runs the country in the culture. The Republicans have the Senate and the presidency and that’s very important. But the culture? And the more the left controls the more totalitarian it is. That is not an attack it’s a statement of fact, like two plus two equals four. It is idiotic that you cannot say the N-word. Idiotic. Of course you should never call anybody the N-word, that’s despicable. But to say the word? You cannot even say that the word is despicable. You have to say the N-word.”

Prager appears to be arguing — without evidence — that there is a cultural freedom to use anti-Jewish slurs that does not exist for the n-word. He provides no data to suggest you can go around saying that “k-word” without facing similar cultural consequences to the use of the n-word. In fact, when he tried it on his own radio show, he got called out for it by a Dennis Prager Show listener.

If there’s a difference between the two, it’s that “the n-word” is one of a handful of slurs that has developed an easily recognized euphemism, like “the c-word” or “the r-word.”

Those interested in denouncing or describing slurs that don’t have easily-recognized euphemisms, without saying them out loud and in full, will simply have to continue expending the extra syllables to say “a derogatory term used to describe X.”

Watch the clip above via The Dennis Prager Show.

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