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Are there certain words we can't use in referring to racism?

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Blaze Diem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:25 AM
Original message
Are there certain words we can't use in referring to racism?
I know we can use words like "White or Black", or Asian or Jewish, Muslim, when siting an article with concerns about racial tensions, and the outcome of those tensions, however, its been pointed out to me that there are certain words we must never say for fear of insulting other, when discussing racism.

Although we are all adults and can certainly carry on all types of discussions that concern us, I do believe that expressing disgust at blatant racism must be carefully worded as to not offend certain races.

Careful what news you quote also, even if its quoted correctly.
I thought free speech was still allowed in DU...
apparently that depends upon who reads your posts...

Certain races must be handled with a more tender hand than others, as I've found out.
I'm not liking the way DU has evolved in this respect.
Christ, I've been posting here ( used to be under a different name.) since the beginning.The days of Salon mags. origin, when MoveOn.org. also made its debut.
When President Clinton was drug through hell by the Neocons, and the insanity of those days and nights.

I've inquired about the "sensitivity" to certain mention of certain races in any unfavorable light, but have yet to hear any response from a moderator.
Guess maybe no answer is needed.
I think I've got it figured out.
Can't speak ill of certain races, nor repeat what news delivers us, in that same respect, because certain races have been exempt from being guilty of the same thing (racial hate crimes). We can read about it, witness it, but we cannot express our ire for such blatant racism here on DU., any longer.

Welcome to America.
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Nicholas D Wolfwood Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:28 AM
Response to Original message
1. You mean like black people being guilty of hurling racial slurs?
Like how I was at Starbucks a few days ago, I sat down around the corner, out of view of the clerks, whom were both black. After every customer left, including myself, they used every derogatory term for a white person they could think of in describing them, even though not a single person was mean to them in any way. You mean something like that?
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Blaze Diem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:45 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. Sort of..except it wasn't Blacks, or white hate, it was Hispanics..
hurled racial slurs against black before murdering them...
Someone posted the article here on DU, and through the course of our discussing this article, and our awareness of racial hate offered up in other places and ways, someone entered our conversation and accused us of "flaming"..
???????????????
GO figure..It would have been as appalling and despicable actions, to me, had it been any race latino or White, or Black or whatever....
I believe it was because the particular gang members were Hispanic, that this person got so protective of what was being quoted in our postings.
I was sickened by the way the racism took such a blatant turn, as described in the article.
Anyway...this insulted person, complained and whined to the mods..and no doubt had a hand in locking the Posting...so we could not discuss this any further...
Too bad, since my postings were a direct quote from the original post..
I don't freakin get it!
That is all.

Hey there are some things people post that offend me..but I do allow them to carry on and have their discussions...
Live and let live..mind your own business..in this case the offended poster maybe could have learned from what we were discussing ...or just left us alone...

hateful people can suck.
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Nicholas D Wolfwood Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:47 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. I agree.
Everyone is capable of racism and hatred, regardless of skin color. And there is absolutely, positively no good excuse, nor any good reason why such behavior should be acceptable. Hate is hate - period.
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qnr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:37 AM
Response to Original message
2. "I'm not liking the way DU has evolved in this respect."
Edited on Fri Aug-04-06 08:48 AM by qnr
Well, with almost 93,000 people (which still works out to many tens of thousands after departures, lurkers, tombstonings, etc.); each unique, you're going to run the gamut of responses. It's not a DU thing, it's an individual thing.
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Blaze Diem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:51 AM
Response to Reply #2
8. Yes, good point...many opinions and the job of a moderator must
really have its difficult days.

I just don't get what the person who complained wwas exactly complaining about.
If you changed the word Hispanic to any other race , I swear it would have been allowed to continue..
like I said..welcome to America..
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ScreamingMeemie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:41 AM
Response to Original message
3. Why don't I see the stuff that everybody else sees?
I mean, am I really that obtuse?? That's rhetorical, btw.
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outofbounds Donating Member (578 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:46 AM
Response to Original message
5. Racist is an overused term
People can not like a person and if you white your a racist if that person happens to be a different nationality. I saw a post yesterday that read; " we can not tolerate intolerance." That is depicting the poster as what he hates. I'm a white male that loves most people, there are people i don't like thing is most of them are white too. If I don't agree with aperson who is a different ethnicity that doesn't mean I group that ethnicity as a whole. But nine out of ten times its viewed that way and I'm labeled racist. I think the people that do this are themselves racist.
Moving forward is the only way to end racism, continuously bringing up the days of old keeps the fires of hate, supremacy from just burning out. .02
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Nicholas D Wolfwood Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:50 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. You can dislike someone of another race
What you can't do is attribute the things you hate about a person to their ethnic background. That's racism.

I will agree that the "racist" card is played way, way too often where it's not warranted at all. The Cynthia McKinney episode is a perfect example of that.
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Blaze Diem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 08:58 AM
Response to Reply #5
9. You are so correct! That's exactly it..
Our postings were not about a race "as a group", but rather the appaling way this particular crime was reported and written about.

It really made me sick to read what the gang menbers said as they gunned down the others...Directly a racial hate slur...
That was the point of our conversation...

Oh well..
I appreciate your .02 and its nice to know I'm not alone in the tiptoeing through the race thing...

WTF!!huh.

Thanks.
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Call Me Wesley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-04-06 09:09 AM
Response to Original message
10. Locking.
Questions about DU policies and moderation should be directed to the admins privately here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/contact.html
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