* * * This message was from Kurt Ullman to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
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{at}MSGID:

{at}REPLY:
 >> On Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:39:27 -0400, Kurt Ullman wrote
> (in article 
>
):
> 
> > In article ,
> >  Amy Guskin  wrote:
> > 
> >> My guess is that those of you who are all "Pshaw, it's
nothing!" over this 
> >> phrase are western-European descended white males.
> >    And for some reason this ISN"T a bigoted response. <<
> 
> And where is the racially offensive term in that sentence?
      The who sentence is racially offensive by suggesting something is 
wrong with ALL Western-European descended white males. 


> 
> As I explained to Carl in another message, I had a reason for saying that.  

    Yep. YOu are bigoted against W-E d wm. They are by your definition 
the only ones who cannot find offense with the original posters 
statement. 

> My reason being, anyone who has ever heard someone
"innocently" use a term 
> that disparages their ancestry, and who has felt that kind of burning shame 
> and anger that that causes, would never in their wildest dreams think to use 
> that term that Mac and Charlie think is just fine and inoffensive.  
   But it is by your lights, okay to disparage W-E d wm? You don't like 
someone so it is perfectly alright to disparage them, but those you 
approve of get a pass. NOt only bigoted but bordering on hypocritical .

Thus, 
> they must be from the group that historically is the focal point of the least 
> bias, the fewest ethnic slurs, and a general ability to move through the 
> world (here in the US) without being discriminated against: western-European 
> descended white males.  So, not at all bigoted, in fact: just a well-reasoned 
> socio-cultural conclusion.
> 
       I think the OP was making pretty much the same comment. 

> >> (Actually I am of 
> > the demographic and  thought the way you did on the original)> <<
> 
> You're from a major metropolitan coastal region, right?  I think maybe it's a 
> middle-of-the-country thing; I'm taking note of who says they've heard the 
> term, and who was completely flummoxed by it -- Josh and I had never heard 
> it, and we've spent most of our lives in major metropolitan coastal regions 
> (right, Josh?).

   Nope. Small town midwest during the formative years. Moved to Indy 
and my kids graduated from a high school that had more people than my 
hometown in the two upper grades. 
      Don't even get me started on the utility of using Josh and you as 
a social barometer (g).
                                                            
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