I'd say it's not merely a curse word, for reasons I already suggested in the comment to which you're replying: I argue that it's understandably hurtful to some, and is associated with immense, tragic, shameful wrongs towards groups of people.

Separately, could you have made your point without saying that anyone who thinks differently than you must be developmentally disabled? Would it have been sufficient to say you don't understand why someone would think differently? Or, if you were very confident, and felt some emphasis were needed, could you have emphasized with more detail in a logical argument?

It's more that I think the only way you can be earnestly offended by something like this is if you're stupid, and I don't think they're stupid. I think they're dishonest. It's not reasonable to be offended by phonemes in Cantonese. I don't think they're sensitive, I think they're lying.

Thanks for the explanation. I wouldn't be surprised if some people are feigning outrage. But it's intuitive to me that some others would be genuinely bothered by the appearance of insensitivity to culture in language, by a professor who seems to be speaking as an expert about language and culture. (Not that there's anything wrong with a foreign language, nor with the coincidences in sound, of course.)

If I saw someone in the class who seemed offended, or they mentioned it to me, I'd reach out to the professor privately. Or, if I knew the professor, and had occasion to see this, I'd ask them if they thought there might be a sensitivity they want to realize and address.

Why is it insensitive?

Like, look at it in the first person. Can you imagine being hurt if you were being taught Indian and one of their words was "kike"? That's incomprehensible to me. It's totally loopy.

> hurtful to some

If you're hurt by hearing someone speaking Chinese, there is something wrong with you, not with the Chinese speaker.