# How should a person accused of racism respond? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 12, 2021, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942 "2021-12-12T17:39:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/181 "2021-12-15T18:03:47Z")
Some rows need actual ending. Not sweeping under the carpet. Why do you think all this shit is still around in 2021? Rolling over and “getting along”. Giving racists the cover of deniability and respectability. “I was only joking. You know how those Wokists take everything the wrong way.” Fuck. That. Noise. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/182 "2021-12-15T18:19:18Z")
Funny, you should use a goofy pit meme to denigrate a poster while doing whatever it is you do in ATMB. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/183 "2021-12-15T18:21:14Z")
What’s denigrating about saying “well done, you!”? I feel on those occasions you make a point, it _should_ be acknowledged in some fashion. My only regret is that the smileys aren’t able to be customized like the thumbs up. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/184 "2021-12-15T18:21:37Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > > If the guy’s currently on the far side of the room with his mouth momentarily shut, that doesn’t mean he’s going to stay backed off; especially if he thinks he can get me alone later. > > Obtaining a coerced apology will hurt more than help with that threat. Possibly. But drawing the attention of others at the party to what’s going on will (if they’re halfway decent people) reduce it; while letting him remain there unchallenged is likely to increase it. > [@RitterSport](#): > > > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > > Who the hell is “Juicy”? > > Probably Jussie Smollett. If so, calling him “Juicy” is nasty. Granted, Smollett from what I’ve read on the subject is a nasty character; but calling him out of his name – in a thread that started off with a case about the possibility that calling somebody out of their name might be racist – does not seem to me to be called for. > [@Max\_S](#): > > I do not. After it’s clear the apology won’t be forthcoming, after the person agrees to stop harassing you, you are an asshole to _ **keep** making a row_ over the apology. I’d be making a row over the Nazism, not over the apology. And it would still be the Nazi who was the asshole. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/185 "2021-12-15T18:26:22Z")
Well shoot. My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/186 "2021-12-15T18:26:56Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > And in this world there is political utility in making those accusations as well. There is also a whole lot of political disutility in making such accusations, which is generally the more salient outcome. Racists and anti-antiracist snowflakes tend to imagine accusations of racism as being harmful only to the accused and invariably beneficial to the accuser. This is in line with their preferred narrative of well-intentioned non-racist white people being the “real victims” in such situations. In real life, though, people who make such accusations are widely reflexively disparaged as “difficult” or “angry Black person” or “hypersensitive” or “troublemaker” and so on. White people still get a whole lot of benefit of the doubt when they’re accused of racism. Which is a major reason why so many racist microaggressions and even more blatant instances of racism are allowed to pass unchallenged, because their victims don’t want to risk the additional negative consequences of speaking out. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/187 "2021-12-15T18:38:25Z")
_De rien_. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/188 "2021-12-15T19:31:30Z")
I think there’s a difference between “demanding an apology is a strategic error” and “demanding an apology is being an asshole.” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/189 "2021-12-15T22:25:41Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > If so, calling him “Juicy” is nasty. Take it up with Chapelle, he was the one with the “Justice gor Juicy” stand-up back when the case was fresh. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/190 "2021-12-15T22:27:23Z")
I haven’t watched Chapelle. I have the vague impression that he’s also nasty. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/191 "2021-12-15T22:31:11Z")
I’m fine with being nasty towards those who use accusations as a weapon. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/192 "2021-12-15T22:45:29Z")
> [@Taber](#): > > I think there’s a difference between “demanding an apology is a strategic error” and “demanding an apology is being an asshole.” In the scenario under discussion I would say it is both. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/193 "2021-12-15T23:36:36Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I’d be making a row over the Nazism, not over the apology. And it would still be the Nazi who was the asshole. If you aren’t ruining the entire party to demand an _apology_, then you aren’t automatically an asshole. Even if you are ruining the entire party to demand an apology, that only makes you _an_ asshole, not _the_ asshole. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/194 "2021-12-15T23:38:03Z")
The presence of a Nazi ruins the whole party. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/195 "2021-12-15T23:40:20Z")
According to [the hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/104), that is false. The Nazi was chasing you (or me) around, and the party was still going on. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/196 "2021-12-15T23:41:31Z")
That’s a bug, not a feature. And that’s part of what I’d be making the fuss about. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/197 "2021-12-16T00:14:04Z")
I’ve lost you. 1. It’s a bug, not a feature, that people were still partying when a drunk chased a Jew around with Nazi salutes. 2. […] 3. The Jew who ruins the party by aggressively demanding an apology, after the drunk stopped the harassment and after it is clear an apology won’t be issued, is not necessarily an asshole. ETA: Come to think of it, in my opinion #1 doesn’t hold unless everybody at the party saw the saluting. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/198 "2021-12-16T02:11:37Z")
If you think a party’s not ruined by having Nazis harassing people at it, I don’t know what to say. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/199 "2021-12-16T04:26:11Z")
Why do you keep conflating these two things? Also, the thread is about what a person accused of racism should do, not what the accuser should do. It’s one thing to discuss what the accuser is entitled to, but you’re muddying the waters by introducing alternative reasons why they shouldn’t pursue what they may be entitled to. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942/200 "2021-12-16T11:57:17Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > I’m fine with being nasty towards those who use accusations as a weapon. I wonder how you square that with your consistently hyperbolic accusations against the left, accusations that are absolutely in line with the Fox News/Magahead discourse that seeks to marginalize the left even as it endangers its members. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-person-accused-of-racism-respond/955942.md?page=11)