Rule/Etiquette Updates: Prejudicial Language

[Airyaman]

Who knew that relaxing rules and announcing such would turn into a 4 page discussion? The oddest things we talk about.

Um...we are still talking about the rules, aren't we?

[kevin]

it's the principal of the matter, you dimwit

[Maggie the Opinionated]

Um, no. The 2nd tier is definitely having trouble finding anything else to do. For once we are in agreement. There isn't a single currently active thread  that is worth the trouble of clicking on. When the pickin's are this slim, even a desiccated donkey and a geriatric cow seem tasty.

[Maggie the Opinionated]

Err, what? What principal? Principle? Is it the principal who is your pal all the way through school? Or the principle that pulls you back from the ethical abyss?

[Assyriankey]

Who knew that relaxing rules and announcing such would turn into a 4 page discussion? The oddest things we talk about.

It's like everyone slowing down to look at a bad car crash.  We all want to look the other way but Maggie is just too damn attractive.

[nateswift]

Besides, where ELSE are we gonna find "pit yorkies?"

[Shawna]

Alecto and Tisiphone and their b***hy posts are. And you decided you just had to play Megaera to complete this unpleasant trinity!

  Oooh, ooooh!  Can I be Alecto?!

[FGOH]

When, oh when are you going to stop whining about being smited?

When, oh when are you going to wake up and smell the roses?

Ain't no roses to smell in this thread. Shame, coz there's plenty of fertilizer.

[Dr H]

Who knew that relaxing rules and announcing such would turn into a 4 page discussion? The oddest things we talk about.

Um...we are still talking about the rules, aren't we?

Wait . . . there are rules here??

[Dr H]

When, oh when are you going to stop whining about being smited? Don't earn the smite and you won't get one.

Time to drag this out again--

The Mad Smiter

I smite and I smite; as is my good right.
I smite all the day, I smite through the night.
Whether it's right or even if wrong,
I smite and I smite all the day long.
I smite right and left, I smite up and down, I smite
if you laugh and I smite, if you frown.
I smite both the dull, as well as the bright
Tis nobler to smite than to pick a big fight.
Some say it is wrong to take such delight,
in the click of the button that admin'sters the smite.
Piffle, say I, I stand on my rights
to cast judgment on those who whine about smites!

I haven't much used my karma powers, because I mostly find such things silly.  But I did give you a +1 on that, if only because it instgated several smites. 

Have you set it to music?

[Mr. Blackwell]

This thread isn't about Maggie or anyone else. It is an announcement of changes in the rules. She and many others have stated their opinion. Any further discussion about member conduct, prior or current, is tangential and off topic.

This thread has run it's course.

[Mooby the Golden Sock]

Who knew that relaxing rules and announcing such would turn into a 4 page discussion? The oddest things we talk about.

Um...we are still talking about the rules, aren't we?

Yes, we can't stop.  We WON'T stop.

[Shawna]

This thread isn't about Maggie or anyone else. It is an announcement of changes in the rules. She and many others have stated their opinion. Any further discussion about member conduct, prior or current, is tangential and off topic.

This thread has run it's course.

Oh, don't be a poopyhead.  Everyone knows that thread doesn't have legs.

[Assyriankey]

This thread isn't about Maggie or anyone else. It is an announcement of changes in the rules. She and many others have stated their opinion. Any further discussion about member conduct, prior or current, is tangential and off topic.

This thread has run it's course.

Don't be so anal.

This forum has always tried to allow for as much independent thought and consideration as possible - it is a core consideration underpinning every single rule and etiquette here.

[Dr H]

This thread has run it's course.

So, um... how's the weather there? 

[Gnu Ordure]

I thought I'd re-post a recent judgment on this rule. I'm obviously not clear how it works.


A member said this:

The people in Africa are too damn lazy to grow a garden and work to grow food.

I reported that as an E1c (Slurs: Labels used to describe group of people that are generally regarded as hateful and/or offensive), because my understanding is that applying the label 'lazy' to Africans is offensive.

I'm not alone, Teaspoon said the same thing:

-1 Steveox for a post I found very offensive and disturbing.

When I asked why it was found not guilty, Mod 10 replied:

The racial slurs thing is supposed to cover the "n" word and suchlike, rather than low level racist comments.

Prejudiced opinions will not be moderated provided they follow the Rules/Etiquette.  Instead, we will leave them open to public discussion and critique.

Just to be clear, I'm not appealing the decision. Just curious as to what people think...

[Mooby the Golden Sock]

Which group of people does "lazy" specifically describe?

If I walked into a crowd and shouted, "I'm sick and tired of all those lazies," roughly what percent of the crowd would understand that I am using a hateful/offensive term towards people in Africa?

[Captain Luke]

Just to be clear, Gnu: Captain Luke replied, not Mod 10.

Mod 10 is communicating the staff consensus. Captain Luke might spout any old s**t.

[kevin]

"african" is not a race, not an ethnic group, and not a nationality.

[billet-doux]

"african" is not a race, not an ethnic group, and not a nationality.

Tis the poor man's Carioca ... the Continental

[Gnu Ordure]

"african" is not a race, not an ethnic group, and not a nationality.

'African' refers to an identifiable group of races, ethnicities and nationalities. But I'm not sure that that makes any difference, Kevin. Even if the original remark had been "Afro-Americans are too damn lazy to grow a garden and work to grow food", thus referring to a sub-group of Africans, it would still have been permitted under the new rules - whereas the same sentence with 'Afro-Americans' replaced by the n-word would be a violation.

Is that correct, Mods?

[Mooby the Golden Sock]

Yes, the n word is a slur.

[Gnu Ordure]

And so are 'dirty Jew', 'stupid Pole', 'Russian pig'... and 'lazy Black'.

The Wiki article on Pejorative (my bolding) :

A pejorative (also term of abuse or derogatory term) is a word or grammatical form of expression that expresses contempt, criticism, hostility, disregard and/or disrespect. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social or cultural groups but not in others, e.g., <snip>. Sometimes, a term may begin as a pejorative and eventually be adopted in a non-pejorative sense in some or all contexts, e.g., <snip>

Name slurs can also involve an insulting or disparaging innuendo, rather than being a direct derogatory remark. In some cases, a person's name can be redefined with an unpleasant or insulting meaning, or applied to a group of people considered by the majority to be inferior or lower in social class, as a group label with a disparaging meaning. Also, an ethnic slur or racial slur can be used as a pejorative to imply people of those groups are inferior or deficient.

Click on the link to the Ethnic Slur article (more bolding):

The following is a list of ethnic slurs (ethnophaulisms) that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or to refer to them in a derogatory (critical or disrespectful), pejorative (disapproving or contemptuous), or insulting manner in the English-speaking world. For the purposes of this list, an ethnic slur is a term designed to insult others on the basis of race, ethnicity, or nationality. Each term is listed followed by its country or region of usage, a definition, and a reference to that term.

Ethnic slurs may also be produced by combining a general-purpose insult with the name of ethnicity, such as "dirty Jew", "Russian pig", etc. Other common insulting modifiers include "dog", "filthy", etc. Such terms are not included in this list.

I conclude from that that the statement, Afro-Americans are too damn lazy to grow a garden and work to grow food, is a racial/ethnic slur, which many if not most Afro-Americans would find offensive.

[kevin]

just look at these n****rs:

[kevin]

just look at these bark-eating nordic yabos:

[kevin]

just look at these:

[kevin]

these ^^^ are just talking points.

i'm not trying to make work for anybody.

[Tom]

Kevin I thought that you had posted a picture of a "mole" on the right but on closer examination I discerned that it was really an infestation of spittle on my screen.

[nateswift]

Once again Steveox skirts around the rules while displaying his vicious ignorance.  I say it's time to either put him back on moderation or boot him entirely.

[Pastafarian]

Interesting.

As an "African" I was pissed by the remark. But not because I felt it was directed at me. I was pissed at the ignorance.

In South Africa a white person says "I'm ALSO  an African". It feels strange...rebellious...like I'm claiming something I should, but don't have a right to.
In South Africa, black people are African. Everybody else is not. Unless you ask a proud white person.

The ruling doesn't bother me though. It allowed me to share some of the experience of one whitey African and the struggles our country is going through.

"...I feel offended by that. Well so f**king what?"
Steven Fry.

EXITED: clarity of last paragraph.