paulhgc wrote:Wok Chinese Express Takeaway the best chinky in sydenham / penge
GLOBAL THINKER wrote:Erm "Chinky" Admin were are ya!!
At the chippy?
I think we are talking food rather than cannibalism here. Seriously the test of abuse I use is the intention - not the words. I think the term was used affectionately about a cooking style (which it would be ok to abuse) and an ethnic group which it certainly would not be.
Hope you don't think I'm splitting hairs. I'll just say intended racialism is a no-no and I do take action.
All grown up and able to stand up for myself, and having lived a lot I know when the quote "was used as a term of affection" is used at the end of a sentence you are on a slippery slope. Hadn't intended to amuse but there you go. Yes, we all been called all sorts of things in life, but just because you get called something offensive doesn't make it acceptable. This is a public forum and should be moderated accordingly.
So..............No free speech then?
We have far to many people telling us what we can and cannot say already without being told off on a message board.I think the person that said the word "Chinky" was genuinely being affectionate towards the Chinese race, it certainly doesnt not offend me when i am called "limey" or white honkey or any of the other names the white race gets called, why? because i am a grown up! and left all those feelings back in the school yard where they should be left.The CRE has done a lot more harm than good over the years by trying to ban so called name calling,By the way that applies to all races!
Free speech, absolutely. But using the banner of Free Speech to justify offending remarks is not good enough. If you are comfortable and "grown up" about people using such language towards you, more power to you. Me I would find it offensive.
GLOBAL THINKER wrote:This is a public forum and should be moderated accordingly.
But what is accordingly?
STF moderation (see the next thread up) seeks to avoid censorship subject only to maintaining the Forum as a friendly open group not dominated by any person or group. As such it has been criticised for both being both too lax and too restrictive.
As you can see opinions vary as to whether this particular word should be moderated out. The noun was applied to cooking, not people and was probably posted innocently. Hence I took the view that censoring a particular word out, academie francaise style, was IMHO too heavy handed whatever we feel about the appropriateness in this context.
For you to point out to the OP that it was, in many people's opinion, outdated and could offend is very valid and welcome. Moving language on is important but can be counterproductive if people feel they are being forced to move rather than persuaded.
If STF is to be successful it has to be a broad church tolerant of each other's right to disagree. Sometimes you will have to tolerate imperfect moderation - I'm no Solomon! This is why discussion on moderation is encouraged. It does inform and influence and hopefully help me to try and do it better next time.
Thanks for your comments admin, in my opinion "accordingly" should mean that whilst we should encourage vigourous participation on the forum we should stop short of using clearly prejudicial comments, if the word chinky was replaced with another slur to describe a black or asian person there would no question that it would be unacceptable. If you want to describe chinese food, say chinese food. It's not that difficult.
Admin were are ya!!
French, Italian, Asian yes, but Chinky no way! No matter the intention it is not acceptable.
So..............No free speech then?