Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80
Nope. I was discussing the concept of "ignorance is no excuse." Someone else mentioned it earlier in the thread, and as it's something that I have often questioned, I took this opportunity to raise the issue.
In both events, the one I mentioned from last month and the one being discussed in this thread, ignorance was used as a defence - thus, my "in" for raising the issue I wanted to discuss.
My post was meant to move the discussion beyond the "he's a stupid fathead" that was prevalent in this thread.
Until we're able to emotionally detach ourselves from topics such as these, and be able to treat the discussion itself in a trivial manner, the process of moving forward is a pipe dream. Take two people conversing about the weather as an example. Both can clearly have their own opinions about whether the day is too hot or too cold, with neither person getting bent out of shape. However, in all our years of claiming "racial progress" we still can't talk about the real issues behind an action, without outlandish hyperbole and conjecture.
To me, the real issue isn't whether or not he said something bad, or if he should have said it at all... The real issue is wether or not a guy who grew up in a State with an overall Chinese population ratio of 0.5% was even responsible for knowing that he wasn't supposed to say it.
|
I grew up in Prince Edward Island, a place with likely even fewer Chinese people living there. I still knew it was a derogatory term, and I'm pretty sure my buddies all knew it was a derogatory term. The guy was born the same year as me, he grew up with the internet, not in a time warp from the 1920s, disconnected from the outside world. It's almost unbelievable that someone in North America growing up in our time period could be ignorant of what that term actually means. It's
THE racial slur when it comes to Asians.
Of course, it is possible that he really didn't know it was a bad term to use, but it confounds me to think of how he would have come to that conclusion. He's clearly heard the term before. When is it ever used in a positive context? His Mom used to walk around complimenting the "chinks" on their tasty food and fine teas?
It just seems bizarre, and when I weigh the two options, personally, of whether he a) heard the term, but didn't know it was bad, or b) is trying to back-pedal from a really stupid comment, I gotta say that b just seems more likely.