My point wasn’t so much “know your audience.” What i am saying is that the “its only words, no word can be offensive” argument boils down to “i’m not offended therefore nobody else has the right to be offended” and it’s a pretty obvious violation of any standard of civilized behavior. Take for example the “draw mohoammad” thread - do something thats offensive to certain people, on the basis that since it’s not offensive to everyone, it should be offensive to no-one. (That’s the charitable explanation - personally I suspect the point is simply to insult muslim beliefs, full stop). Bottom line, no person has any r ight to determine what other people can or can not be offended by.
No person has any right to determine who other people can or can not offend either, though.
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Meaning these forums are uncivilized.
My favorite is the “I see everyone as the same as me” argument. which is just a convoluted way of saying “I like to see everyone as being white like me”
look at my avatar and tell me i cant handle a gay joke or two haha
-edit-
it occures to me while on the subject
that jews and muslims are religious groups moreso then ethnic groups and yet biggotry againt them is still considered “racist” a word which seems to strongly denote race and yet people are very slow to consider biggotry towards gays racism as well
all over these very forums i read things about “faggot” this and “thats gay” and on and on but many of these same people would jump all over someone for using a term such and ni##er calling them racists
lets be clear if racism against a black person (racial racism) is the same thing as racism against a jew (religious racism) then racism also must apply to durrogatory terms for gays (sexual racism)
i can just feel all of the forum trolls heads shaking and ready to explode as they read this
I never said I was trying to summarise your stance, merely agreeing with it and saying that it lead to (‘hence’) my stance as offered. Since I don’t have to right to to determine what other people find to be offensive, I try and avoid behaviour that could offend others even if I or people I know wouldn’t have a problem with it, until I haver a good idea what a given person’s boundaries are.
technically there’s no “race”, but by such standards (and throughout religious persecution history) jews are an ethnic group, and have been lumped with “race” even when they don’t want to.
sexism and homophobia is not the same thing obviously, since those are much more specific.
I live near Detroit, we say nigger AND nigga all the time and nobody really gets offended. But I am incredibly white, so whenever I try and say it it just comes out all awkward. So I don’t say it.
yeah, most black people i talk to don’t like that word alltogether, and try to encourage against it’s perpetuation (especially by black youth)
Nobody is really openly racist around here though because you really can’t be, if you’re white you’re in the minority so it’s best to just keep quiet. As long as you’re not being racist like “You’re a nigger” and you’re using it like “he’s my nigga” or something, MOST of the black people aren’t too bothered by it.
yes, I’m familiar with such social circles. I’ve lived around the states and had a variety of experiences to learn from and form my conclusions. Charleston, SC for example is vastly different from the Mission district in SF. likewise Baton Rouge has parallels to Seattle WA.
As you said, It really just depends where you are. But the 21st century approach is mostly against the perpetuation of not only that word but also the connotations and destructive culture surrounding it (namely the whole “ghetto” lifestyle, which is a vicious generational cycle that is hard for impoverished and misinformed youths to break).
Still, I guess things are gradually getting better.
I have several mates from other cultures, I’ve made racist jokes infront of them, they’ve done it to me, we all had a good laugh. I don’t see what the big deal is.
This, fags.
This has to have been posted about fifty billion times, we get it. :hmph:
Me and my friends did the same thing around eachother, it just started to get really old and unclever by high school.
We joke about racist jokes all the time at my school, but I’m pretty sure you’d have to be legally retarded to take them seriously
:facepalm:
You’d have to be retarded and racist to think that applies to everyone.
Its all about context. Sometimes giving attention to things like racial slurs is what gives them power. Sometimes it is best to blow them off, while living in Wailuku, one of the poorest and crime infested cities on Maui, and I was called a “Haole”, even if I was offended I would not show it, it would have served to embolden fights that I had no part in and honestly did not understand.
When someone has used a jewish slur against me I feel the same way, they are showing their ignorance.