On Thu, 14 Mar 2002 13:25:50 -0600 Evan Prodromou <evan@debian.org> wrote: > That said, I think censorship is wrong, and that racists, homophobes, > and sexists can shoot themselves quite nicely in the foot without help > from anyone else. Evan: This isn't so much a direct reply to you, I just think this is a good moment for me to speak up :) Okay, so, in that quote I think we see where the real problem lies. Everybody who is advocating the removal of "offensive" text doesn't seem to take into account the author's intention. I don't think *any* of these authors write these things as a racist. I think they write them as a (possibly off-colour) comedian. I worked for a bunch of Jamaicans. For a year. I was the only white guy in a shop of about twenty guys(we refurbished commercial kitchen equipment). So that's one sheet-white nerdy kid in a building full of big, black guys :) And you know what? I said the word "nigger" plenty often. I made "black jokes". Hell, I made "white jokes" too :) So did everybody. We all meant them as they were taken - humorous speech. I was never accused of being a racist, and I never accused them of being racists. It's called human interaction; it *happens*. I would advocate maintainers censoring their packages if the content was of a racist. But in order for that condition to be met, we need two things: a) A racist author. Somebody who is actually a racist. Not somebody who has written something that a racist might have written. A racist has said the word "I" before; just because I use it as well doesn't make me a racist. Nor does it something a racist said which demonstrated their racism is the same when coming from my mouth. b) TEXT THAT IS OBVIOUSLY NOT MEANT IN A HUMOROUS FASHION. We keep talking about children here, but we seem to be neglecting their education. If they don't get exposed to humour, if they don't learn how to make the distinction, they're going to have a really hard time in life. Okay, that's my two cents. I don't think the preceeding has been said in quite so plain a fashion yet. If it gets ignored, I'll live :) -- ________________________________________________________________________ \ David B. Harris, Systems administrator | http://www.terrabox.com / / eelf@sympatico.ca, elf@terrabox.com | http://eelf.ddts.net \ \======================================================================/ / Clan Barclay motto: Aut agere, aut mori. (Either action, or death.) \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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