I am so not kidding about that last bit. I mean, he was kind of an ass and a neat freak (I’m not), but . . . how to say this.
New Roommate and I had a very brief conversation this morning about the lack of television in the apartment common room. Note that this is not word for word (I can’t remember word-for-word else I’d post it here)
NR: “Do you have a television?”
Punha: “Not here, but I can bring one if need be. Why?”
NR: “I gave mine to my sister, and she’s in Harrisonburg, and none of those faggots [points to rooms down the hall] brought one.”
Now, I am going to temporarily assume that neither he nor my very nice and unbigoted suitemates is gay, which means that we have a teeny little situation on our hands.
Before I left the apartment I asked him if he’d have a problem with one of our suitemates being gay. His words, looking a bit scared and unsure, “I dunno, why?”
So this will be interesting. I plan to talk to him about this later on and see just what he needs to be done in the way of Being Nice and Learning About Others. I’d really rather not move out of this apartment, seeing as I paid for the semester and I’ve just as much right as anyone else to live there, plus he can change while I can’t.
Anyone got a suggestion for how to go about doing this? I’m not about to go to the RA yet; he hasn’t said he refuses to stop using the word (I was so shocked that he did that I froze up for a minute or so), and I haven’t talked to him nearly enough yet to know for certain that which I fear (that he’s a homophobic prick)*. I do, however, want to resolve this . . . I don’t want to spend the semester being afraid that he and/or his friends will make my life miserable.
*Yeah, so I’m considering this based on his use of one word. Problem? Deal.
I’d chill about it for a bit. He may have been using “faggot” as simply a slang minor derogative. he may actually be quite capable of playing nice, he just doesn’t know the rules.
Or he could be one of the people who has gasp never known an out of the closet gay person gasp!. So all he has is the gerbil legend and Will and Grace. And a couple slang terms that he called his buddies back home.
It could be simple pure ignorance that is commonly and gently fought with information and then goes away. College kids are usually pretty resiliant, give him some time and a few calm pointers.
In six months if he’s grown from using a slang term to actually being a willfully evil nutjob, then smack him around. Until then, breathe in and out.
shudder
Ok, just the word Andariel scares me.
I still have nightmares of entering a room, lagging for a minute straight, and finding out that my burly barbarian was beaten to a bloody pulp. Although using that whirlwind back and forth was theraputic afterwards…
Anyway! To stay on topic:
Um, I have nothing to add. After two years of living with roommates, I’ve been on my own for the past month, and I couldn’t be happier. So, uh, just slash his tires, or something, and say that the guy down the hall did it.
Yeah, and a whole lot it did me since I couldn’t get to act 2. And since you killed Andariel in YOUR game, not mine.
My character may be gay, but at least he isn’t a girl!
MC: I think he is using it as a “standard bad word” type of thing, i.e. saying “they’re bad”, not “they’re gay.” But it really does bother me . . . not just that he said it, but that I froze afterward. I’m going to talk to him later today (tonight, whenever) and see what the deal is.
But I’m not about to slash the guy’s tires for using the word once, Ino He’d have to do something like that more than once to warrant such a thing.
Plus he may well have given his car to his sister, too:)
He’d have to do something like that more than once to warrant such a thing.