Russian mat vs. English racial slurs

[zombie-laika.livejournal.com]

Whenever the topic of mat comes up, I'm told that it should be avoided at all costs. I've been given two reasons: 1) as a non-native speaker, it's extremely difficult to understand how to use mat; 2) mat is much stronger than its English equivalents. The second reason is harder for me to grasp than the first since I am completely numb to this type of quality in Russian.

The following question is to help me understand the strength of mat in Russian. How would you (native speakers) compare the strength of Russian mat to the strength of the word nigger in English? Note that I'm not asking for a comparison of meaning (obviously mat is sexual and nigger is racial), but instead for a comparison of the magnitude of the words' impacts.

Comments

[todesser.livejournal.com]

We use mat to insult somebody. If person reacts - well, we achieved the purpose of using mat.
Second, we can use "козел", for some persons it's far more insulting than "пидорас" or "хуесос"

[alon_68]

Not always :-) Some people simply cannot speak without "mat". In this case, words like бля etc are used simply to fill pauses, without intention to insult somebody.

[todesser.livejournal.com]

It's another question :) Many depends from intonation