This is a post by Teresa Marques (University of Barcelona).

Consider how ordinary speakers argue about words like charnego, gitano, or negrito. In some contexts their use is taken to be straightforwardly degrading; in others it is defended as neutral, affectionate, or at least nonderogatory. These disagreements are familiar and often heated. They pose a natural philosophical question: what, exactly, makes a term derogatory, and how should we understand cases in which competent speakers sincerely disagree about whether a word counts as a slur at all?