# Huey Freeman is banned

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 29, 2019, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587 "2019-01-29T02:18:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/101 "2019-01-29T10:00:34Z")

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I’m going to restate what I said in the other thread. One of the hallmarks of a good troll is that they’re hard to avoid. They post _everywhere_. In any given thread, you can expect them to show up and spew their shitty bile all over the place. There was no avoiding **Clothahump** ; he posted wherever, whenever, and your best hope was to put him on ignore and hope that nobody else took the bait, and even after 18 years that couldn’t be relied on.

**Huey** didn’t do that. **Huey** posted in a small handful of threads, mostly in the pit, mostly started by or about him. Sure, he was mostly an abrasive, obnoxious dick, with some truly noxious ideas, and I’m not going to miss him. But “troll”? Eh. We have trolls. We have _lots_ of trolls. We have lots of people who actively make intelligent conversation on any issue far more difficult, and who the forum would probably be better off without. I don’t think he was one of 'em.

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**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:** [January 29, 2019, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/102 "2019-01-29T10:39:42Z")

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> [@Miller](#):
>
> I’ve banned **Huey Freeman** as a troll.

Gosh, what a surprise.

**Banquet Bear** , **Heffalump and Roo** and (so fucking help me) **octopus** have already really said all I’d want to say in this thread.

But I just want to add that it’s laughable. Huey was banned for being an angry Black man who did not play nice with both the outright (and proud) racists on this Board, as well as the never-met-a-pile-on-they-didn’t-like posters. That’s absolutely clear as day, and all the bending over to find a rule to justify it (which has clearly been shown with post cites to be bullshit) really wasn’t necessary, **Miller**. Because nobody’s actually fooled by that.

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**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/103 "2019-01-29T10:54:13Z")

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> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> Who WOULDN’T get pissed, if someone insulted their kids?..

On a message board by an anonymous poster?

Me.  
mmm

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/104 "2019-01-29T12:30:54Z")

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It should be a bannable offense to use personal information that one might have shared on these boards to attack that person and humiliate him or her.

It should be a bannable offense to craft vicious insults that demean people with disabilities or mental health issues.

There should be a limit to how personal you can get in the Pit.

That’s what Huey should have been warned for and that’s what should come out of this episode.

Besides that, I’m not persuaded that Huey actually was a troll.

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/105 "2019-01-29T12:31:43Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> But I just want to add that it’s laughable. Huey was banned for being an angry Black man who did not play nice with both the outright (and proud) racists on this Board, as well as the never-met-a-pile-on-they-didn’t-like posters. That’s absolutely clear as day, and all the bending over to find a rule to justify it (which has clearly been shown with post cites to be bullshit) really wasn’t necessary, **Miller**. Because nobody’s actually fooled by that.

No, he was banned for being a virulent asshole posting vile wall-of-text screeds and attacking anyone who dared question anything he said. I can’t say for sure where the banline for being a virulent asshole is, not being a Mod, but this “you all just hated him because he was a truth-speaking black man and secretly want to fling racial epithets at him” schtick is what nobody’s fooled by. Whether he was genuinely an angry black man or just playing one on the internet for attention and lulz, he was definitely a jerk.

Was he worse than other long-time posters who have heretofore been tolerated? Possibly not, but that’s a separate conversation.

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/106 "2019-01-29T12:32:35Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Huey was banned for being an angry Black man who did not play nice with both the outright (and proud) racists on this Board, as well as the never-met-a-pile-on-they-didn’t-like posters. That’s absolutely clear as day, and all the bending over to find a rule to justify it (which has clearly been shown with post cites to be bullshit) really wasn’t necessary, **Miller**. Because nobody’s actually fooled by that.

It definitely wasn’t due to calling white people inbred autistic retards.

As for the outright and proud racists on the board, I have most of the ones I’d consider to be so on ignore, (Huey among them), so I don’t know anything about his interactions with the white racists. His posts I’ve seen quoted from the rank and file of the board are bad enough to warrant a ban, in my opinion.

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/107 "2019-01-29T12:38:20Z")

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Although come to think of it, I’d think that anti-White bigots would have a harder time here due to the board’s rules against personal attacks: since the board trends European-American, there will be more people to be personally insulted when bigotry is posted.

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**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/108 "2019-01-29T12:45:53Z")

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Seems like more and more when I visit this forum its to see the rent-a-mob going after their next target.

No more scattered complaints about people you don’t like, now you’re picking them off one by one, focusing on a poster until the groundswell convinces the mods to “have a discussion” and then hand out a ban for who cares what reason.

Banned for being mean in the Pit? Oh thats a good one. For using personal details to insult another poster? Thats bloody ironic considering the history of the insulted poster in question.

So, who’s next I wonder? That recreational outrage is going going to need another target soon.

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**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:** [January 29, 2019, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/109 "2019-01-29T12:53:31Z")

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Huey: White supremacy sucks! I really hate it, and I’m super angry about it! Misogyny’s A-OK though.  
SDMB: Woah there, chill out, you can’t be super-angry all over Great Debates, that’s what the Pit is for.  
Huey: Fine, I’ll stick to the Pit, where I can tell everyone how shitty white supremacy is, and also be pretty misogynistic!  
SDMB: Posting only in the Pit? You’re banned.

I too think things went down pretty poorly here. What Miller says wasn’t worth banning, was; and what Miller says was worth banning, wasn’t.

Asahi, for all his shouting, is right that this is an overwhelmingly white space, and Roderick is right that it’s good for us white folks to hear voices we might not hear in our quotidian lives.

On the other hand, it’s a pretty male space as well, and I’m not sure that it does us much good to tolerate someone who spouts as many hos and thots as Huey did.

Banquet Bear, thanks for your words in this thread and for your research. I hope you stick around.

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**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/110 "2019-01-29T12:58:19Z")

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Asahi, I don’t know if you can or will read the board while you’re suspended, but I like you and I would miss you if you got permanently banned. So don’t do it. And take it from one who knows: don’t post while drunk. Peace, dude.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/111 "2019-01-29T12:59:52Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Gosh, what a surprise.
> 
> **Banquet Bear** , **Heffalump and Roo** and (so fucking help me) **octopus** have already really said all I’d want to say in this thread.
> 
> But I just want to add that it’s laughable. Huey was banned for being an angry Black man who did not play nice with both the outright (and proud) racists on this Board, as well as the never-met-a-pile-on-they-didn’t-like posters. That’s absolutely clear as day, and all the bending over to find a rule to justify it (which has clearly been shown with post cites to be bullshit) really wasn’t necessary, **Miller**. Because nobody’s actually fooled by that.

Dude, you cannot call out racists while defending one. The guy did all the things you normally are against. He was openly racist against both white people and Hispanic people. He was ableist, attacking children of posters for being autistic, and blaming that on them being white and thus inbred. He was told several times this was wrong and kept defending it, so he didn’t care about being a bigot to these people.

And what he said to **Guin** was absolutely awful, another form of ableist and sexist bigotry (as she only had value if she had a male partner).

Because of that crap, the color of his skin doesn’t matter. It was the content of his character. He was as bad or worse than the other racists you mention. His skin color doesn’t make it okay.

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/112 "2019-01-29T13:01:17Z")

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> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> On the other hand, it’s a pretty male space as well, and I’m not sure that it does us much good to tolerate someone who spouts as many hos and thots as Huey did.

Up until this thread, I’d only heard “thot” as a shorter version of “thought”, so I guess this thread did save me from using it in the future.

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**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:** [January 29, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/113 "2019-01-29T13:01:49Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> Because of that crap, the color of his skin doesn’t matter. It was the content of his character.

Gentle suggestion: when a white dude scolds a POC and explains to them how racism works, perhaps don’t invoke Martin Luther King Jr. in your scolding?

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**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/114 "2019-01-29T13:16:19Z")

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> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> Asahi, I don’t know if you can or will read the board while you’re suspended, but I like you and I would miss you if you got permanently banned. So don’t do it. And take it from one who knows: don’t post while drunk. Peace, dude.

Seconded.

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/115 "2019-01-29T13:20:24Z")

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> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Gentle suggestion: when a white dude scolds a POC and explains to them how racism works, perhaps don’t invoke Martin Luther King Jr. in your scolding?

Isn’t he the right person to invoke?

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**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/116 "2019-01-29T13:20:38Z")

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> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Gentle suggestion: when a white dude scolds a POC and explains to them how racism works, perhaps don’t invoke Martin Luther King Jr. in your scolding?

I get what you’re saying, but MLK would be saddened that you think his words only apply in _some_ instances, as determined by the skin colors of the speaker and listener.

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**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/117 "2019-01-29T13:24:12Z")

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> [@bucketybuck](#):
>
> Banned for being mean in the Pit? Oh thats a good one. For using personal details to insult another poster? Thats bloody ironic considering the history of the insulted poster in question.

QFT+1

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**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:** [January 29, 2019, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/118 "2019-01-29T13:29:29Z")

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> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> No, he was banned for being a virulent asshole posting vile wall-of-text screeds and attacking anyone who dared question anything he said.

Except we can see in this very thread posts (quoted by **Heffalump&Roo** ) where he disagreed with people yet didn’t attack them…

> [@](#):
>
> “you all just hated him because he was a truth-speaking black man and secretly want to fling racial epithets at him” schtick is what nobody’s fooled by.

I didn’t say that’s why everyone hated him. Dude was abrasive, misogynistic and offensive as fuck. I said that’s why he was _banned_. Not the same thing.

> [@](#):
>
> Whether he was genuinely an angry black man or just playing one on the internet for attention and lulz, he was definitely a jerk.

Lots of jerks still merrily posting away here, rule or no.

And are you questioning whether he was genuinely angry, or genuinely Black?

> [@](#):
>
> Was he worse than other long-time posters who have heretofore been tolerated? Possibly not, but that’s a separate conversation.

No, actually, it’s very much the heart of this conversation - _why_ does Huey get the insta-banhammer (as opposed to, say, suspension), and not others?

> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> It definitely wasn’t due to calling white people inbred autistic retards.

Not according to **Miller** , it wasn’t.

> [@](#):
>
> As for the outright and proud racists on the board, I have most of the ones I’d consider to be so on ignore, (Huey among them), so I don’t know anything about his interactions with the white racists. His posts I’ve seen quoted from the rank and file of the board are bad enough to warrant a ban, in my opinion.

Who that’s been quoted do you consider the “rank and file”, vs “racist”? There’s **Guin** , but she was in my second category and, quite frankly, started the shit with **Huey** herself.

> [@BigT](#):
>
> Dude, you cannot call out racists while defending one. The guy did all the things you normally are against.

Which is why you don’t see me defending his actual virulent posts…

> [@](#):
>
> And what he said to **Guin** was absolutely awful, another form of ableist and sexist bigotry (as she only had value if she had a male partner).

Oh, you can’t tell me **Guin** doesn’t love the drama. Especially since her initial crowdplaying tactic of calling him a disguised White supremicist just got her pwned.

> [@](#):
>
> Because of that crap, the color of his skin doesn’t matter. It was the content of his character.

Thanks for the homily, Dr Reverend :rolleyes:

> [@](#):
>
> He was as bad or worse than the other racists you mention.

Possibly.

> [@](#):
>
> His skin color doesn’t make it okay.

Never said it did. But I think he did merit a little more Pit moderation than just a lazy instabanning.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/119 "2019-01-29T13:39:18Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> …pwned.

People still use this?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [January 29, 2019, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huey-freeman-is-banned/828587/120 "2019-01-29T13:44:00Z")

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> [@Scumpup](#):
>
> People still use this?

Only when there’s total pwnage…

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