Warbler said:
Even within the contexts where it may carry a racial connotation, I don’t think it’s on par with the n-word. There is no unspoken rule that ‘thug’ shouldn’t be used negatively.
all I was saying is that the term has come to have some racial connotations,
how? why? who decides this?
This was already explained. I give up, since I’m not convinced that you aren’t intentionally missing the point.
I assure you, that is not case at all. Until today I had never of any racial connotations with the word thug(unless you are talking about it in a situation where a white person is calling a black person a thug, only because the person is black). I have seen many times the word thug used to describe a white guy.
I don’t think that ‘thug’ has racial connotations in all contexts, but I think it definitely does in some.
what contexts does it have racial connotations?
Look, Warbler, we can’t give you a whole encyclopedia on what words are to be used when and what connotations those words might have. Nobody can. We have to decide on our own what a person means using this thing called context. People know that this:
Glass is typically a transparent material.
means a different thing than this:
We should have more transparency and accountability in our government.
due to the context in the sentence. I think you learn this in school.
Also, I’m not sure why you seem so fixed on the issue of what the word “thug” means.