Doesn’t really work that way. If any thread I open might turn out to have racist crap in it, that infects the whole board.
Yep. It definitely does.
Compare how this board used to be infested with leering misogynistic posts, just dropped into any old thread, most any forum. It took a concerted campaign to get that to change. And now it’s a lot better, I think (although any female poster is free to correct me!).
And then consider that there are a damn sight more female posters here than Black or Brown ones. And it still took ages.
Then consider how much more invisible the racist crap is to most of the people on this board. Hell, a lot of posters here don’t even agree racist microagressions and dogwhistles exist. That’s why I said I don’t hold out hope of real change.
A message board doesn’t “accidentally” have statistically zero Black posters.
If you don’t want to risk the mere possibility of encountering racism, despite choosing a table where polite manners and common courtesy is required, why are you eating dinner with unvetted strangers? 
~Max
Unvetted is one thing. Unmoderated is another.
If I go out to a restaurant, I do so under the presumption that other customers aren’t going to randomly spit into my food. And if somebody does, I expect the restaurant to do something to stop it. Not just to stand there and laugh at the spitter.
And you seem to think that deliberate racism is a normal component of “polite manners and common courtesy”. It’s not, and it shouldn’t be.
If the rules need changing, change them.
- Blatantly racist posts will be warned.
- Posters attempting to slip a blatantly racist post past the mods will be banned.
If that hasn’t already been done, it should have been. So let’s just say it has. It’s 2022 for god’s sake.
For the umpteenth time, if it was my decision, I would have moderated the post.
~Max
If I understand you correctly, only because it was in Café Society. You explicitly said
I would like to choose a table where “polite manners and common courtesy” are required.
Now, to my mind, “polite manners and common courtesy” kind of preclude racist speech. As in - racist speech is inherently rude, impolite and discourteous.
So, if there’s racist speech, it’s axiomatically not a table where “polite manners and common courtesy” can exist.
You can. You can leave this board at any time. We all have that choice.
To be fair, some of the ones we did have were open transphobes, so … think of it as reverse intersectionism.
Well, duh 
I must therefore accept things just as they are, right? Can’t agitate for change, no sir.
And not be so damn uppity, clearly.
For once, we agree on something.
~Max
So, since I can’t choose such a table…
From the registration agreement:
We have one guiding principle: Don’t be a jerk.
[ . . . ]
You are free to express your views in a forceful manner provided you remain civil. Hate speech, insults, and purposely inflammatory remarks (i.e., trolling) will not be tolerated.
[ . . . ]
If we tell you to refrain from behavior that we regard as uncivil, or that in our view detracts from productive discussion, do so or face revocation of your posting privileges.
[ . . . ]
Do not post hate speech directed against any race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or gender in any forum.
To sit anyways or to go - that’s a decision you have to make. I’m all for moderating deliberate racism as against polite manners and common courtesy, which is literally in the rules of Café Society.
~Max
Put up with racism, or be chased away.
Tell me again how the community is not racist, again?
My argument is that, as I said, there is more you could do, under the Don’t Be a Jerk rule. The whole idea of the SDMB moderation rules is that they don’t have to cover every single circumstance. In the banner (on the post in question) you say you looked for any way to deal with it, but couldn’t find one. The original purpose of my post was to say “here is the rule you can use to moderate this.” (I had actually hoped I’d get a thanks and then it would be moderated. Not that I expected it.)
You may not have intended it, but your Staff Note effectively tells the poster that they can continue posting in that manner. You didn’t indicate in any way that this was something to discuss. It read more like the mods together had decided there was nothing they could do. It appeared to be an official pronouncement that, since it wasn’t hate speech, it couldn’t be moderated—that you couldn’t even give a Mod Note to knock it off.
As I argue, you can instead moderate it under the Don’t be a Jerk Rule. @Max_S even helpfully quoted the specific part of the rules that would allow it. You have a lot of leeway there.
I’m all for a specific rule. (I in fact have argued that we should be a specific rule about misogyny.) Those help clarify things, and make it no longer so much of a judgement call. But I disagree heavily that there was nothing you could do under the rules as is.
And I very much think the Staff Note itself actually made things worse, not better, for the reasons I stated above. I actually got a PM from someone else who told me they were as shocked as I was by it. And they are not someone who usually PMs me.
And I do apologize for my replies being long—it’s just that I’ve found that longer posts tend to heavily reduce misunderstandings. It seems better to overexplain than underexplain.
And so?
What is your point?
I am not in favor of allowing hate speech or even deliberate or offensive racism. The post mentioned by the Op should have gotten a Note- it wasn’t blatantly racist, but it was deliberately coy and certainly racism could easily be inferred and seemed to me to be implied. (it is hard to tell what people are thinking or any inner motives when posting).
But the option to leave is there. If someone is that disgusted with a message board or facebook or whatever- you can just leave. It isn’t the same as telling someone they can just get on a plane and leave their country. Message boards, etc are not really important in the great scheme of life. If posting here is raising your blood pressure and hurting your mental or physical health- then yes, you should leave… or at least take a break.
Says the guy with 30 days of read time and 222,000 read posts.
This is thorny’s board as much as it is yours or mine or anybody else’s. Suggesting that they leave is a shit move.