Posters in this thread were making “jokes” about my home and current state of residence. I responded in kind with a similar “joke” about a racial ethnic group to see if it would garner the same hilarity.
Jokes about West Virginia deserve a note, but generic racial slurs directed at no one deserve a moderator warning. I disagree. Yes, I should have reported the post, but I come from the old school where we don’t run to the teacher when we are picked on during recess.
If the board thinks I’m wrong, I will accept the democratic process. Otherwise, I believe my warning should be rescinded, and more attention should be placed upon specific regional and religious insults instead of generic racial insults.
And IIRC, you were making a “joke” about my state of residence in that thread and got a mod note. You didn’t use a slur…just bashed my state. Is that better?
In some situations, mods re-consider and warnings have been rescinded. We’re only human, and we do make mistakes on occasion, and we can correct those mistakes.
Well…see that’s my problem with the moderation. It’s acceptable for you to make jokes about West Virginians fucking their cousins, but if I respond with hyperbole, I get a mod warning. Double standard there, IMHO. Are blacks less subject to insults than West Virginians? Or Irish? Or Ole Miss Grads? Or Jews?
You got a warning for a double whammy of using a racial slur and junior modding in GQ. You just took things too far with the N-bomb, and then you got a bit ranty about the moderation. John got a note for his comment. In football parlance, John jumped offsides, and you roughed the QB after the play was over. He gets 5 yards, you get 15.
Racial slurs are only prohibited on this board in as much as they are directed at posters or directed towards people in a mean spirited way. The word “nigger” is all over this board. It is used for a variety of purposes. A board search can confirm that. In my post I did not direct a slur or demean the African American race with my post. (To anyone who read it in context)
My “junior modding” comment was a bit over the top. There was a passage of time from the two comments about West Virginians and their cousins. No notes or moderation. Perhaps I should have told the teacher. That wasn’t what I got the warning about. I got a warning for my language which is prevalent all over the board.
I should have gotten a note…as I said my words were chosen poorly. But I still contend that the mods let the WV/MS/AL, the south jokes about incest stand without recourse. I am offended by that. A lot of good people live in my state, none of which have sex with their families. Tolerance needs to be expanded.
I think your problem was the use of the word nigger. Had you said exactly the same thing but with “black people” you’d have an excellent point.
Although the more I think about it I can’t really see why using the word nigger makes things worse, because when you used it was effectively short hand for “black people, who are niggers”. No different to “west virginians, who are niggers”.
All in all I think you have a point. But on the other hand does it really matter? You don’t have to declare a SDMB warning to your next employer you know.
I thought your intent was very clear, and did not indicate racism on your part. You said something very ugly to emphasize that you found the other post very ugly.
I agree the other post was breathtakingly ugly. I did not find the post immediately preceding yours particularly edifying, either.
I find it disturbing that only you were warned; your language may have been more offensive, but the sentiment was not.
Originally I was kind of with the OP this one. Ultimately I’m not so sure. I’m offended by the posts that triggered the OP post. I think the casualness with which the OP threw around “nigger” bothers me a bit more. ‘Blacks’ could have been used to exactly the same effect without the inflamitory nature.
And as been noted, around these parts you should report regardless of your schoolyard history.
I think that gratuitous slams against the South are repellent and are signs that the person making the slams is a bigot. It’s among the most acceptable bigotries among the left (I once, hilariously, got chided for being a straight white man daring to criticize a gay white man for his nasty comment about the South, despite the fact that I and not he am engaged in the struggle for equal rights for gay folks in the South and have dear friends impacted by the local homophobia–but that’s another story).
I think your comparison to racism was over-the-top and unwarranted.
Nonsense. Where did you get that from? Racial slurs should in general not be used on the board. They may be permitted in certain cases, such as discussion of the offensiveness of the term itself, song lyrics, literature, etc. Gratuitous use merely for effect, as yours was, should not be regarded as being permitted. Certainly they should not be tossed around casually in GQ. If you had merely said “black,” I would have made it a note instead of a warning. Using “nigger” was entirely out of line.
The object of these rules is to keep discussion in GQ and other forums on track. Tossing around grossly offensive terms as you did is likely to derail a thread into responses to the terms themselves rather than the subject at hand.
I’ll say it was over the top. As I said in my warning, if you were so exceedingly distressed by the other posts you should have reported them. And it’s juvenile to regard reporting a post as being “telling the teacher.” We don’t read every thread (not even most of them), and since a few of us have actual lives we may not even see a thread report for several hours. If you’ve reported a post and a mod has not taken action, you can follow up with a PM or email to see if he or she just not seen the report yet, or decided that the report didn’t merit action. In no circumstances are you justified in retaliating against another poster on your own.
The remarks got a note as soon as I became aware of them. You got a warning instead of a note because you upped the ante with an unnecessarily offensive term. I said specifically that the other posts got a note instead of a warning because they did not use such offensive language.
Your remark was in no way a joke. It was just a hostile attack on another poster.
In case you haven’t noticed, this board is not a democracy. You haven’t made any valid case to have your warning rescinded. I’ve issued plenty of notes regarding regional, ethnic, religious, and political jabs. Your allegation that we ignore these insults and only pay attention to racial ones is without merit. Your warning stands.