<p>“Baelor, wouold you want to room with someone who hated you for being a smug narrow minded holier than thou jerk?”</p>
<p>Even more to the point: Baelor, how would you feel if your roommate was a person of color and you saw on their facebook that they were referring to you and other white people by (insert a racist name)? Would you feel comfortable rooming with a person who thought like that?</p>
<p>As a black person, I’ve found that people who throw around racist names for black people also may be people who perpetrate physical violence upon black people. The same is true of people who call gays by inappropriate names or who refer to women as (insert inappropriate name here). </p>
<p>The same would be true of people who refer to white people by inappropriate names.</p>
<p>First, I hope you don’t think we’re ganging up on you, Baelor!</p>
<p>Anyway, not all people who use slurs are violent. But basically all people who are violent use slurs. Sadly, this is a day and age in which we still have to watch our backs. The ISMS may not be as blatant as they used to be, but that almost makes them more dangerous.</p>
<p>Actually, the Supreme Court has ruled that language is a safety issue, and threatening language is not protected by the First Amendment.</p>
<p>I fought this battle when one of my students, a neo-Nazi white supremicist, said that he wanted to exterminated everyone who didn’t have blond hair. He repeated these statements frequently in class making it very difficult to teach. I was told by everyone in our administration that he couldn’t be removed from the class or prevented from making these comments because he had “a first amendment right to make them.” In fact, I was called the Ayatolah for wanting to stifle free speech in my class.</p>
<p>Fast forward six months the Supreme Court ruled that such speech is not protected, and now I would be able to do something about this situation.</p>
<p>It makes sense not to protect such speech under the First Amendment. The same way as we should take seriously all threats people make to hurt themselves, we should take serious the threats people make to others. Besides, have we learned nothing from incidences such as Columbine? Words hurt, and people have a breaking point at which they snap.</p>
<p>It didn’t need to be a free speech issue to begin with. Even if the comments were pertinent to the discussion, repeating the same comment over and over is not appropriate to a class environment. If a teacher doesn’t have the ability to decide when education is being compromised due to redundant comments, it’s over. You must work with too many clowns.</p>
<p>One thing don’t like is when people throw around the term “P.C” as if one has to be super careful so as not to offend people who are super sensitive (translation “too sensitive”). One should avoid saying certain things so as not to say something that’s offensive. One should be courteous and kind and not be a boor.</p>
<p>I agree- It can really be hard to rein in my kick butt tendency when I admonish someone for making a racist/sexist/ageist/homophobic comment and they go all sugary sweet and put quotes around their reply.
But especially when kids are listening, I feel I need to say something, otherwise kids think that those who are silent are OK with it.</p>
<p>I hate the word " gay" as it is used to describe something that is " not acceptable".
I hate the word " slut" to describe someone who dresses provocatively
However, I admit I have used the word " ■■■■■■■■, in referring to myself for making a dumb mistake & this was to a woman & her son who is autistic and with whom I have had conversations about what neurotypical means :o</p>
<p>Learning to live with others is a process- we make mistakes and hurt people we don’t want to hurt- so keeping the lines of communication open & being accepting of others rights, just as we want them to regard our own is crucial.</p>
<p>Regarding girlie posters- I haven’t seen an airbrushed’photoshopped Playboy centerfold for a while- but I wouldn’t want one hanging in my dorm room, although I would expect many young adult males to be interested in porn.</p>
<p>But to hang it on a public wall ( which a dorm is) , seems to be trying to project a certain image- over compensating perhaps? & is rude to other guests/roommates.
Then again rudeness could be part of their image in which case it would be best that they find others of similar persuasion.</p>
<p>This is something people say? I guess I’ve led a sheltered life in that respect, because I’ve never, ever heard it. I could make a guess, but what exactly do people mean when they say that?</p>
<p>I don’t let comments that are racist, ablist, homophobic, anti-trans, etc. go by without saying something. And when I give people a hard time for comments in the last two categories, I don’t see a need to point out that one of the reasons I object to such comments is my own personal and family situation. Because that really shouldn’t matter.</p>
Seriously? When I’ve heard it it usually has something to do with money and/or attitudes towards money. Like you just took something back to the store to get the sale price which went into affect the day AFTER you bought it. Or you found a coupon after you got home and returned to the store to get the extra discount on an item you bought that morning. Or you are at a garage sale, and you bargain hard with someone to get a few bucks knocked off the price of that old mirror. Or you reuse your tea bags because they cost 3 cents each, even though you have 7-figure bank accounts. None of these things are bad, in the least, they just reflect a certain thrifty mindset.</p>
<p>Yes, seriously. I’ve never once in my entire life personally heard someone use “Jew” as an insult in that way. Maybe it’s because people know I’m Jewish, or because they think I “look Jewish” and they don’t want to risk being offensive. But I’d prefer to think it’s because the people I know or encounter aren’t anti-Semites. After all, the only states where I’ve ever lived or gone to school are New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Perhaps things are different out there west of the Delaware River.</p>
<p>My four years of high school were very uncomfortable indeed.</p>
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<p>This is what I’m saying.</p>
<p>My concern here is strictly statistical. The concern was that it was a safety issue.</p>
<p>I will defer to the data. If studies showing that slurs lead to violence directly (or even are correlated with it), the issue is resolved from my end. I have not seen any, nor does my own experience support that notion in any way.</p>
<p>As important as personal feelings are, I am not even going to touch the legitimacy of feelings of discomfort and being threatened. Again, there was a claim that it was a safety issue. I simply stated that I do not find that claim is necessarily legitimate – the mere feeling of being unsafe is not enough to establish the situation as unsafe.</p>
<p>" I simply stated that I do not find that claim is necessarily legitimate – the mere feeling of being unsafe is not enough to establish the situation as unsafe"</p>
<p>There would be, though, good reason to be afraid. If you, were for instance walking in a neighborhood and a person of color called you a racial epithet, you’d be making a mistake if you decided to, for instance take a touristy stroll there and assume that you were safe. You could be risking your life.</p>
<p>It is a measure of your privilege in this society and the fact that you must have been fairly sheltered from such situations that people of color, women, and gays have learned to recognize as possible life threatening. </p>
<p>Would you really feel safe if you had a roommate of color who was using racial epithets against white people on Facebook?</p>
<p>If I had a gay child who was assigned a roommate who used gay slurs, I would certainly be fearful for his safety. Nobody should have to put up with that type of harassment. It may not be a direct physical threat from the roommate, but it is certainly a mental threat. Gay teens have a high suicide rate because of these types of threats. Gay students are at college to learn just like everybody else; they shouldn’t have to put up with bigoted jackasses who insult them in their own dorm room.</p>
I’m not sure why it would be antisemitic, per se. Wikipedia defines antisemitism as “prejudice against or hostility towards Jews, often rooted in hatred of their ethnic background, culture, and/or religion”. Where is the hostility, hatred, or prejudice? If someone uses a phrase like that, are they insulting the subject of the phrase, or the Jewish people in general or what?</p>
<p>@NSM: I am not really interested in discussing this matter beyond the limited context in which I entered the discussion. I took issue with the statement that it was a safety issue presented factually.</p>
<p>I never said that there were not situations that were life-threatening. I don’t know why you keep saying (or at least strongly inferring) that I ever said anything to that effect. I would refrain from making statements about my upbringing without having met and talked with me in person.</p>
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<p>Again, it’s not a matter of whether I feel safe. It’s a matter of whether I am safe. It bears repeating that this is in a physical context – I acknowledged in my first post that there is no question about how this is mental abuse (and suicide or self-harm I would classify as mental; whether it is or not is irrelevant given that my classification has been clearly laid out).</p>
<p>I stated it clearly in my posts here – my sole concern is examining the nature and veracity of concerns for safety on a statistical basis. That is all.</p>
<p>It’s time for me to ask if you’re serious, Sylvan. Associating Jews with an excessive concern with money (and with being cheap, cheating people, etc., etc.) is one of the oldest, most classic, anti-Semitic stereotypes, dating back to the Middle Ages and beyond. You actually don’t know this?</p>
& is rude to other guests/roommates.