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John Henry · 05-28-2004, 03:31 AM

First of all, a confession...

My friends and I do use racial slurs, sometimes against each other, sometimes against strangers, sometimes in jest and sometimes in anger.

This is very much a confession. I don't think using these terms is right and I won't try to justify it.

What I will say, though, is that not one of us would ever entertain anything so absurd as the belief that one's ancestry, place of residence or place of birth is any indicator of one's inherent worth.

To give an example of what I mean, when somebody tried to pick my pocket in Barcelona, I angrily ranted that the guy was a "Thieving fucking catalunyan dago bastard." but that doesn't mean that I consider all catalunyans to be thieves (the only reason there are a lot of thieves in Barcelona is because of the large number of tourists, I suspect) or that I would regard any other spaniard/catalunyan with any kind of prejudice.

The racial slurs in this instance were simply part of generic stream of expletives, just as if someone, say pushed in front of you in a queue, you might mutter that he was a "Stupid, fat bastard". It doesn't mean that you think there's anything wrong with being stupid or fat, but it's a more gratifying release of anger than saying "What an uncouth, queue-jumping fellow that man is". Although anyone with any guts would simply take issue with the guy personally.

Anyway... to answer your actual question... I don't think there is any need to take offense at this sort of crap. For myself, I can only get upset by what people say if I have some regard for their intelligence and their opinion. Clearly there is no sense or intelligence behind this kind of comment, so there's no need to take any more notice of it than you would of a gnat bite. If someone actually tries to rationalise or justify racist points of view, that is when they need slapping down. Those kind of people are dangerous. Anger is only useful if it can prevent harm. Since the only harm such playground name-calling can do is to anger you, anger is not a valid response.

Allowing moronic racists to portray their racism in a moronic way can only serve to show how stupid racism is.

05-28-2004, 03:31 AM	#33 (permalink)
John Henry Addict Location: Grey Britain	First of all, a confession... My friends and I do use racial slurs, sometimes against each other, sometimes against strangers, sometimes in jest and sometimes in anger. This is very much a confession. I don't think using these terms is right and I won't try to justify it. What I will say, though, is that not one of us would ever entertain anything so absurd as the belief that one's ancestry, place of residence or place of birth is any indicator of one's inherent worth. To give an example of what I mean, when somebody tried to pick my pocket in Barcelona, I angrily ranted that the guy was a "Thieving fucking catalunyan dago bastard." but that doesn't mean that I consider all catalunyans to be thieves (the only reason there are a lot of thieves in Barcelona is because of the large number of tourists, I suspect) or that I would regard any other spaniard/catalunyan with any kind of prejudice. The racial slurs in this instance were simply part of generic stream of expletives, just as if someone, say pushed in front of you in a queue, you might mutter that he was a "Stupid, fat bastard". It doesn't mean that you think there's anything wrong with being stupid or fat, but it's a more gratifying release of anger than saying "What an uncouth, queue-jumping fellow that man is". Although anyone with any guts would simply take issue with the guy personally. Anyway... to answer your actual question... I don't think there is any need to take offense at this sort of crap. For myself, I can only get upset by what people say if I have some regard for their intelligence and their opinion. Clearly there is no sense or intelligence behind this kind of comment, so there's no need to take any more notice of it than you would of a gnat bite. If someone actually tries to rationalise or justify racist points of view, that is when they need slapping down. Those kind of people are dangerous. Anger is only useful if it can prevent harm. Since the only harm such playground name-calling can do is to anger you, anger is not a valid response. Allowing moronic racists to portray their racism in a moronic way can only serve to show how stupid racism is. __________________ "No one was behaving from very Buddhist motives. Then, thought Pigsy, he was hardly a Buddha, nor was he a monkey. Presently, he was a pig spirit changed into a little girl pretending to be a little boy to be offered to a water monster. It was all very simple to a pig spirit."