The lead in to that post was "I think a lot of recent changes in the language are harmful. Many common, short, clear, and concise words and phrases are being replaces with long, vague, sterile versions. Not only in the IT field, but everywhere." and then the poster went on to demonstrate her case with the example of the logically misapplied term "person of color" that is now popular amongst some minorities in the USA and probably other western countries. In the context of the debate and in truthful fact the person was being empathetic and not biased in any way. In fact she was pointing out how the term itself is biased and making a very good point as well. It was entirely germane to the speech concerns she raised and did not attack any race or person at all. Unfortunately she hit one of the politically correct landmines and those with an American-bias immediately jumped on her for it quite inappropriately. The person who called out the attempt to misapply the CoC on her also made this point.
I'm American but have lived around the world and currently reside in Thailand. I have had many (actually almost every once they learn I'm American) mixed and white S. Africans ask me if they lived in America could they be considered African Americans as well. Interesting question. My friends from Liberia, West Africa wonder in amazement at the terms Americans use to describe black people who have clearly never been to Africa. If one leaves their bias behind they will discover why many people find these terms absurd and misapplied. None of this makes them racist. So, yes, in the context of the debate that was going on the CoC was invoked to kill speech neither intended to insult anyone and was clearly making a point germane to the core issue of the discussion of concerns about imposing American political correctness on the group. Turns out she was right. Could TPTB directed the conversation another way? Yes. But rather than use reason, this person elected to use the threat of force against this person who was espousing a concern in the interest of the community and making a genuine attempt to make the community a better place. -- Ben On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 6:36 AM, James Bennett <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 6:25 PM, Benjamin Scherrey <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I really appreciate you for being the first person to directly >> respond to this most critical issue in this debate. You are correct, this >> incident is quite central to my point and concern. However, I have again >> reviewed the group thread under discussion where the incident occurred and >> found absolutely nothing that comes close to violating the CoC from the >> person who was quite directly threatened to either shut up or be banned. It >> doesn't get much clearer than that. >> > > I went back and took a look at the thread. The comments were heated, but > specifically I see things like referring to the terms "person of color" and > "PoC" as "ridiculous", followed up by an example meant to mock the terms. > > Those are terms which are widely used by people both to self-identify and > to talk about issues they face as a result of their racial background. If > you believe that calling it "ridiculous" and mocking it is acceptable > behavior, then I think the divide between your conception of "acceptable" > and the community's definition of "acceptable" may be a bit too large for > any meaningful discussion to take place. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Django developers" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/django-developers/CAL13Cg8waRb5Nfq-1Nj1e%3DQbMwL7_VWfbpvNOtR-ap1jOk%3DCrQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/django-developers/CAL13Cg8waRb5Nfq-1Nj1e%3DQbMwL7_VWfbpvNOtR-ap1jOk%3DCrQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Chief Systems Architect Proteus Technologies <http://proteus-tech.com> Chief Fan Biggest Fan Productions <http://biggestfan.net> Personal blog where I am not your demographic <http://notyourdemographic.com>. This email intended solely for those who have received it. If you have received this email by accident - well lucky you!! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/django-developers/CAHN%3D9D7YvG3Ue44kPHzkZBMRWJyVpoBoa5vzD3U_DRiJ%3DazNEw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
