I did look up Eric Zorn, and apparently he has also had issues with racial insensitivity. From that op-ed:
DePaul’s upcoming “Tough Times for Local Journalism” panel next Wednesday features former Chicago Tribune columnists, including Eric Zorn — who wrote an opinion article following the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo that expressed racist views about Latinx youth and great insensitivity towards police brutality.
We understand that people can have their own opinions; however, inviting someone to DePaul who has made publicly racist sentiments places students of color at risk. Chicago is the third largest city in the nation with a large journalism industry. DePaul could have selected any other journalist who has not offended an entire community.
I’m not here to defend the op-ed section of DePaul, but I also don’t feel like reading his substack. If you have an argument to make, make it.
If you were the least bit interested, you could easily see Eric’s (full disclosure - a good friend of mine) lengthy and transparent efforts to engage in that and other instances.
I am not the least bit interested in “making an argument” to anyone who cannot be troubled to spend minimal effort familiarizing themselves with the facts.
Your approach typifies so much of what I find troubling about modern allegations of insensitivity. You won’t read a moderate length essay, but instead, want me to pull out “a few quotes.” Lazy liberalism/intellectualism, relying on soundbites and clips, rather than ascertaining any subtleties or context. All the while happy to offer great presumptive credibility and veracity to those claiming to have been offended.
Modnote: This is attacking the poster and not the post. Save this for the pit in the future or just refrain. Good rule of thumb, words like You and Your and a good indication you’re not debating the posts but going after the poster.
This is just a guidance, not a warning. Nothing on your permanent record.
And I’ve been part of this community for 25 years, and there are other long term members who refer to me as a radical socialist and accuse me of hating America.
That’s kind of fucked-up.
I’d find it hurtful if I was thin-skinned, but I don’t really care what people I don’t like and don’t respect think of me.
And, although I’m not sure what opinions you hold that would lead someone to call you a racist, I suspect it’s a matter of context.
If someone were to “disagree with the cultural norms around the “n-word”” and expressed that disagreement by starting threads with titles like
How come black people can use the n-word and I can’t? How come someone can call me a cracker, but I can’t call them the n-word? If I’m reading Huckleberry Finn out loud to a black audience, can I say the n-word then?
Yeah, I’d probably call them a racist.
Now, I’m kind of flying blind because I don’t know what “cultural norms regarding the n-word” you object to or why you object to them.
But I think the societal opprobrium around the use of that word is appropriate. I do not think that it should be a criminal offense, because I do not believe that the government should police speech.
But it’s not about YOU. It’s about the people that are genuinely hurt by the word. It’s about maintaining a civil workplace and a civil society. It’s very easy not to say that word, it’s a very low bar….and I’m not concerned about the tender feelings of people that can’t clear it.
Especially since those tend to be the same people that have been gleefully screaming FUCK YOUR FEELINGS at me for the past 5 years.
This. I’m baffled as to why the prospect of possibly being called “racist” by somebody in an anonymous online community is something that anyone would think it worthwhile to be “absolutely paranoid” about.
And in any case, AFAICT we’ve been having a civil discussion of this topic for several dozen posts now without anybody feeling the need to call OldOlds a racist, so maybe ease up on the paranoia a bit?
Or maybe it’s not paranoia. You know, if you have an opinion and you are scared to express that opinion because you think it will cause a group of people to think you’re a horrible racist person…maybe the problem isn’t the group of people. Maybe it’s your opinion.
disclaimer : this is a general statement and not directed at any particular poster
I mean, ISTM that OldOlds has not been scared to express his opinion that refusing to explicitly articulate the n-word in discussions of its use is “infantilizing” one’s audience. Nor should he be, IMHO: I happen to think that opinion’s rather silly but I don’t see any violation of Board rules in his expressing it.
However, if somebody else happens to think that such an opinion is intrinsically racist, then they shouldn’t be scared of expressing that view either. I don’t see the point of gratuitously upping the stakes in such a discussion by complaining that the prospect of having one’s opinions viewed in a certain unflattering way makes one “absolutely paranoid”.
