Quote:
Originally Posted by Makarov
Well, I don't think it can "easily" mean something else. The entire explanation is incoherent. Why would someone who finds the word "N#####" so offensive and upsetting that he has to angrily and publicly ban hip hop music (or at least hip hop music that uses that word) from the dressing room, by berating the only black person in the room (incidentally, the one person who might legitimately be offended or hurt by that word), then needlessly and gratuitously use that same offensive and upsetting word towards the only black person in the room (incidentally, the one person who might legitimately be offended or hurt by that word)? How does that make any sense? Or am I crazy?
I hope I don't come across as extremely jaded on this subject. I have tried to express, several times, sympathy for Bill Peters and the sincere hope that he can put all of this behind him. I do have a black wife and a mixed race young son. Maybe that affects how I look at these things? I suspect it does. In my professional life, I also give advice/litigate workplace issues like this from time to time. That probably affects how I look at these things too.
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How can you say it cannot be easily taken as such?
I literally gave you a quote from someone else that started exactly the same way that used the N word and wasn't racist in nature.
I think Peters was stupid when he spoke to Aliu, without question, but I still believe there is a possibility that it was said to Aliu simply because he was the one that chose the music and not because of his race.
As you said you give advice on workplace issues like this, let me ask you in a case where someone says something insensitive to someone else, how often would you estimate that it is someone saying something stupid, rather than malicious? In my experience as someone who also has to deal with such matters, I find most are just tactless stupidity and not intended to be malicious in nature. That said, you still have to punish them accordingly, even when you know it was most likely just stupidity.