Has a false accusation of racism ever caused significant harm to anyone in the US?

[iiandyiiii]

@Nars_Glinley

But if he wasn’t a racist and just said something that could have been interpreted that way, wouldn’t that qualify as a “false accusation of racism”? IIRC, it pretty much ended his career on MNF, so I’d call that a significant harm.

It’s impossible to know what’s in his heart, so we can only go by what he said. He shouldn’t have called the guy a “little monkey” – he should have known better, and afterwards he should have apologized. In light of that, and in light of his continuing success as a sportscaster, I don’t think he qualifies.

[Bricker]

@Snowboarder_Bo

I just disagree, partially because we seem to differ on some of the events that transpired. For instance, just there you wrote that Mr. Jacobowitz “spent thousands of dollars hiring a lawyer”, but that may not be an accurate statement. Do you have a cite for the assertion?

I do, but it’s via a paid service – a copy of his complaint filed in the Court of Common Pleas, in which he identifies his damages.

It’s true that in settling the lawsuit – years after the events – those fees were partially repaid.

But surely you agree that having to part with thousands of dollars for a period exceeding a year is itself a significant consequence…yes?

But there’s lots of stuff that I wouldn’t want to have happen to me because it would be unpleasant but that doesn’t rise to a level any reasonable person would call “significant harm”, and I have yet to see anything in Mr. Jacobowitz case that seems to rise that level.

FWIW, I agree completely with the characterizations of the other two situations you mentioned.

I’ll keep this in mind for our future discussions.

[Mijin]

@Buck_Godot

I’m aware of that, but under given it produces an automatic mental association with it’s phonetic cousin nigger, it is probably a word I would avoid using on the record in a political discussion. I am also sure that Howard regretted using it as soon as he saw the reaction it induced in his audience.

Second this.

I am aware of the meaning of the word “niggardly” but I still would be very careful using the word: it’s not a common word and there’s as strong a likelihood of any audience associating it with nigger as the correct meaning.

That’s not giving ground to ignorance, that’s just an acceptance of how spoken language works. I want to convey a meaning as clearly as possible. I need to be careful using words that have double-meanings or sound a lot like a much more well-known, rude, word.