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Old 01-12-2008, 10:59 AM   #81
molson
General Manager
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: The Mountains
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveMax58 View Post
I all seriousness...things like this serve to further divide people by race and/or ethnicities. There are a handful of obvious words that, no matter the context, are inappropriate and/or derogatory in nature. Beyond that, unless you feel this woman is an outright racist, words like "lynch" should not be used to further divide people and make everybody aware that there are atrocities which involved that particular word at some point in human history (albeit more recent than others).

It only serves to make people of all races/ethnicities more aware of the fact that they are different, and must use different language when interacting with certain people of certain ethnical backgrounds. This further propagates discomfort & uncertainty when interacting, which leads to people staying with "their own kind" ...out of fear/uncertainty/laziness etc. in trying to make sure they dont offend somebody accidentally.

There is no excuse for complete ignorance to some words, but there is a line people must draw at some point in terms of what words "should" invoke offensive reactions...and which should not.

Otherwise we essentially will continue to divide ourselves by more and more percieved "differences". And on the whole...the more different people see other people, the less likely they are to associate with each other. The less people associate with each other, the less they actually know about each other. The less they know about each other, the more percieved differences they project on each other. Rinse and repeat.

Great post. I don't at all get the motivation of people who go after people who misspeak in this way. It's disturbing - they're absolutely trying to make the world a more divided place, which in some cases (Sharpton, etc.), keeps them relevant and keeps the money rolling in.

People who say what she said is "racist" simply don't know what the word means.
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