re "reclamation"

[Laurence Horn]

The "reclaiming" of slurs (and the special licensing privilege of
in-group usage) is a standard topic of discussion in this forum and
in the mainstream press (over the last few years, for example, the
Times has featured articles on "queer", "nigga", and more recently
"bitch"), but I don't know how far back the recognition of this
process goes.  Here's a relatively early example from the novel
_Consenting Adult_ by Laura Z. Hobson, published in 1975; this
dialogue is set in NYC in 1969, just before the Stonewall uprising:

"Look, Jeff", Margie said sharply.  "I wish you'd cut out the word
'fag'. When somebody else says it, it's hateful, so what makes it
okay for you to?"
"Sort of an _in_ privilege", Jeff said casually.  "Shop talk."
"Well, I hate it", Margie shot back.  "I hate it when a black calls
himself a 'nigger' as a joke and thinks it's okay for him to say it
but not for anybody white. Or when a Jew says 'kike' or 'Hebe' sort
as if they were _in_ words too."
"Actually, I agree with you", Jeff said amicably. "It's like trying
to defang the snake by using the venom first, before he can spit it
into you."
[p. 255]


Larry