* * * This message was from Wesley Struebing to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
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<0001HW.C130D453009EAB14F02845
On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:31:25 GMT, Amy Guskin 
wrote:

>>> On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:48:04 -0400, phil wrote
>(in article ):
>
>> On 17 Sep 2006 18:14:34 -0700, "Joseph DeMartino"
>>  wrote:
>> 
>>> phil wrote:
>>> 
>>>> unless the last person to work on your kitchen sink drain
was an idiot
>>>> who Africian American engineered ...
>>> 
>>> Now *there's* a term that belongs on a civilized discussion group.  Any
>>> other stupid ethnic stereotypes you'd like to get off your chest, phil?
>>> 
>>> And before you deny that you're a bigot, let me explain something to
>>> you. If you USE that phrase, you ARE a bigot.  Casually trafficking in
>>> degrading stereotypes if one of the symptoms of that particular
>>> disease.  
>>> 
>>> Joe
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> You don't _know_ me; you've never met me or spent any time in
>> conversation and yet _you_ can parse my comment to conclude that I am
>> a bigot; well _I_ can just as easily parse your statement to conclude
>> that you are a bloviating buffoon, but _I_ wont.
>> It was just such ad hominem assaults  combined with my illness that
>> caused me to pull back from this group some 6 months ago.I see _now_
>> that was the right decision.
>> you have _no_ idea of how badly that idiot butchered this house; don't
>> know his name or race, don't really care>  <<
>
>Phil, to be fair to Joe, _you're_ the one who said "African American 
>engineered."  Now, I have no idea what that means, but I don't see
how it can 
>be taken as anything _but_ a racist comment.  And if you don't know his race, 
>why would you call him that?
>
>Just trying to understand -- I was really, really puzzled by your comment, 
>too.
>
It appears that Phil's brush was FAR too broad.  He was using it as a
class derogatory (like the term that my dad, who in all innocence,
used - and couldn't understand why Mom and I were, err, annoyed - when
he talked about "jewing someone down"), and THAT'S why it is
offensive.  (well, at least one of the reasons)

--

Wes Struebing

I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
                                            
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