Alex is verbose, and you owe it to yourself (and the rest of us) to read the statement in its entirety. Remember, when making comments/claims to provide proper evidence, facts etc. Arguments based on incorrect assumptions, facts and straw men, will be dealt with swiftly. If in doubt, PM a mod or ask IRC. Do NOT spread misinformation, when in doubt, check your sources.
So, saying a word that suggest that someone is racist, but everyone knows that is not really the meaning of the word anymore, is really bad and we fire people because of it. But, saying the name of a God in a bad way, suggesting that you are offending God, but everyone knows that the word doesn't really mean that anymore is ok?
Common people, I am an active christian and I don't feel offended when someone says Jesus name or Gods name badly. I know that they just use it as a strong word. I may sound harsh, but get over yourself and dont feel offended by a small word OR equalise it and also don't allow insults on religion!
On March 09 2012 16:08 branflakes14 wrote: The simplest solution is to stop being offended by words and grow up. Your post comes across to me as the kind of politically correct greywash that's stripping national identity from Europe. I don't agree at all with the decision to dismiss him.
It's self-centered, arrogant, juvenile and moronic.
It's a word.
Words matter.
Accidentally asking for red paint when you want to paint a blue sky is when words matter. This is people arbitrarily taking offence at something. If I were to arbitrarily take offence at people taking offence, who then would be in the wrong?
I read it, and what I said undermines everything written in it. Go ahead, call me a honkey and call England a country of violent, colonial, tea drinking brutes. I won't bat an eyelash, I promise.
"Tea drinking brute" is the absolute lamest insult I've ever heard in my life. I guarantee I could find something I could say that would offend you but this thread cant devolve into that
I know, I was tempted but let's not pull an Orb and put our foots in our mouths.
EG seems to always be in the middle of some kind of controversy, but this time they handled the situation perfectly. This post sets the bar exactly where it should be when it comes to the two words in question: very high. That said, I am ready to forgive Orb immediately if he apologizes. He does not strike me as a malicious person, just a guy who rages very hard while playing and says things he shouldn't. I hope most people in the community take a similar position
Also, Alex's comments on Idra are exactly what I hoped he'd say. Really, he's handled this so well, good work by the Boss.
On March 09 2012 16:08 branflakes14 wrote: The simplest solution is to stop being offended by words and grow up. Your post comes across to me as the kind of politically correct greywash that's stripping national identity from Europe. I don't agree at all with the decision to dismiss him.
It's self-centered, arrogant, juvenile and moronic.
It's a word.
Words matter.
Accidentally asking for red paint when you want to paint a blue sky is when words matter. This is people arbitrarily taking offence at something. If I were to arbitrarily take offence at people taking offence, who then would be in the wrong?
I read it, and what I said undermines everything written in it. Go ahead, call me a honkey and call England a country of violent, colonial, tea drinking brutes. I won't bat an eyelash, I promise.
Look, you don't need to be vile with me, I thought it would be interesting to share with you. Please answer how "stop being offended" or Morgan Freeman's response to "stop talking about it" can combat the deep implicit bias and institutionalized racism that still pervades society ? (and I assume we can agree that such a thing exists and would be absent in an ideal society) What does more harm, thinking a racist thought internally and actually being racist or saying a racist word in a public space, whether the intent is racist or not? What about offense being an "arbitrary" concept undermines the concern for rational/positive modern cultural narratives?
Personally, I don't agree that this entire fiasco was the best way to handle it, I think orb brought way more attention to it by lying, and might have saved his job if he apologized immediately. But it's ignorant to say that these issues are somehow irrelevant or that people shouldn't be concerned about this in their communities. If orb was openly racist and broadcasted that, would you still want to be a member of this community?
i have to say this is an overreaction as far as i am informed about this incident. if orbs only fault is that he used racial slurs as bm in replays from 1 year ago, then an apology along with a statement that he is indeed not a racist should suffice.
sure the cs community 2003 was immature, but this here is just as unreasonable, overrighteous whiners approaching sponsors, making an elephant out of a mouse whenever possible, sitting on the high horse hiding their dislike and jealousy that really drive them and finally instigating a large community like reddit to gain the nescessary influence to have a caster fired?
honestly i liked the plain bm people from cs better, at least you knew there was no ill intent behind it, just venting frustration... and to people who believe the sc2 community is so much better: the amount of sexism and nationalism in sc2 is quite high as well, and i have no doubt racism is prevalent, just that the people seem to be smart about it because they know it is not accepted.
EG obviously did not consider orb a valuable asset if laying him off over such a thing was their chosen course of action.
It's self-centered, arrogant, juvenile and moronic.
It's a word.
Words matter.
Accidentally asking for red paint when you want to paint a blue sky is when words matter. This is people arbitrarily taking offence at something. If I were to arbitrarily take offence at people taking offence, who then would be in the wrong?
The solution is to stop being offended by words and grow up. There are numerous slurs that could be thrown at me based on my racial heritage, but not a single one of them would offend me. Allow me to counter your link with Morgan Freeman.
How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it. If someone says nigger, ignore them. Don't make a big deal about it.
If I call your mother a c--t in front of you and your family I have a feeling you'd get offended.
There's nothing arbitrary about being offended, you just are. It's involuntary
I've heard people insult my mother in front of me and to be honest I just felt sorry for them that they felt as though they needed to stoop down to the level of slinging insults.
Ok but no one is impervious to humiliation, there is a way that someone could push your buttons if they tried hard enough. Being offended by its very definition is 'offensive' - humiliation, anger, hurt feelings - all of these are offensive emotions that people can inflict upon you, people making you feel in a way you don't wish to.
You shouldn't judge people as immature or weak minded or whatever just because they are offended by words
I'm actually interested now as to whether any black people who claim to be genuinely offended by what Orb said have contacted EG, or if this is just another case of white guilt.
On March 09 2012 15:36 Risen wrote: What bugs me most about the community (african-american) is that internally the n word is completely acceptable. What does this say to me? Context matters. Don't feed me some bullshit about a word being racist no matter how its used then call your friend a nigga, or use it in almost every rap song.
"nigger" and "nigga" are different words with different meanings
It's just a word to replace "my "brother" " and " my "dawg" " to " my "N _ _ _ _ " " Everyone is not white in this video and their frequent use of N _ _ _ _ doesn't make them racist. " stop playin' N _ _ _ _ " " f _ _ _ that s _ _ _ N _ _ _ _ " They use all of those in that video but there's no caucasian in it though. Words change over time. That word has friendly connotations nowadays. It's not the 1500s to 1800s anymore.
the nword was a derogatory term accepted by the general populace up to the '70s (even after the Civil Rights Act was passed) and is very much a derogatory term today. It is used in different context if used by african-americans, but if used by others, especially whites who have used the term in derogatory terms (they also just called all african americans, 'kids') than ya.
On March 09 2012 16:56 MajorityofOne wrote: EG seems to always be in the middle of some kind of controversy, but this time they handled the situation perfectly. This post sets the bar exactly where it should be when it comes to the two words in question: very high. That said, I am ready to forgive Orb immediately if he apologizes. He does not strike me as a malicious person, just a guy who rages very hard while playing and says things he shouldn't. I hope most people in the community take a similar position
I'm on the same page as you though. I think EG handled the situation well. I think orb handled it extraordinarily poorly at the outset, but is handling it well now. Hopefully won't be a problem going forward if he learns from it.
Prop to EG for their stance. They might not be my favorite team (Liquid FTW) but at least they gain some respect from me.
I think this is a good direction that we should move toward. Public figures in our community should realize that what they do when online will have consequence in the real world too. And that when they choose to become a figure in the community, they have to sacrifice some of their privacy (such as ladder games not being personal anymore). Being well known means that they have to act more carefully and with more composure.
On March 09 2012 16:08 branflakes14 wrote: The simplest solution is to stop being offended by words and grow up. Your post comes across to me as the kind of politically correct greywash that's stripping national identity from Europe. I don't agree at all with the decision to dismiss him.
It's self-centered, arrogant, juvenile and moronic.
It's a word.
Words matter.
Accidentally asking for red paint when you want to paint a blue sky is when words matter. This is people arbitrarily taking offence at something. If I were to arbitrarily take offence at people taking offence, who then would be in the wrong?
That's where you're confused. The offense is NOT arbitrary. People being offended by the word 'nigger' -- even in a playful context -- is not random at all. It's a word will a deep history.
I get offended by the sheer arrogance of white nerds that feel they need to co-opt it. For what purpose? Shits and giggles?
Note that if we were hypocrites we would probably be rioting at your offensive use of "white nerds," but words are only a big deal when people make them a big deal. And if sheer arrogance is all it takes for you to be offended, probably the entire world offends you - should we shut it down to satisfy your delicate sensibilities?
So in other words ... you have no defense or justification for using the word. That indeed it reflects people's arrogance. And their sole intent to offend others.
Just checking.
Alex definitely made the right call.
It's more offensive to me when people think being condescending and putting words in others' mouths is a legitimate form of persuasion. My use of any word is the same as my use of any other word: because it's a word in the language that I might like to use sometime when I'm speaking the language of which the word is a member. This is all the justification I need.
It's possible to involve any word in causing the offense of others, does this mean we need to indict the entire language on charges of discrimination? There's no one word that can only be used in an offending sense, and even if there were, offense be damned anyways. I take pride in my offending expertise - I could offend anyone on the planet with indefinite articles and punctuation if I wanted. The reason I use words outside of that set is to express myself better. I wouldn't get offended at the use of any specific word. I certainly expect others to, if only because the average person can't be quite as dispassionate as me. For instance, an Amish person might get offended that I talked about my motherboard, but that wouldn't stop me talking about my desktop. Sure, I could call it the north bridge as a euphemism and the Amish guy wouldn't know any better, but something offends everyone, so I won't warp my language at the whims of other's offense. Nor would the degree of offense factor into this - someone getting more offended just tells me he's more emotionally unstable.
On March 09 2012 16:56 MajorityofOne wrote: EG seems to always be in the middle of some kind of controversy, but this time they handled the situation perfectly. This post sets the bar exactly where it should be when it comes to the two words in question: very high. That said, I am ready to forgive Orb immediately if he apologizes. He does not strike me as a malicious person, just a guy who rages very hard while playing and says things he shouldn't. I hope most people in the community take a similar position
I'm on the same page as you though. I think EG handled the situation well. I think orb handled it extraordinarily poorly at the outset, but is handling it well now. Hopefully won't be a problem going forward if he learns from it.
Just read the apology. He said what he needed to say.
I think we all knew he was using those words without wanting to invoke the full weight of their meaning, but unfortunately with such terms it's simply something that can't be done and shouldn't be attempted.
On March 09 2012 16:19 branflakes14 wrote: [quote]
It's a word.
Words matter.
Accidentally asking for red paint when you want to paint a blue sky is when words matter. This is people arbitrarily taking offence at something. If I were to arbitrarily take offence at people taking offence, who then would be in the wrong?
The solution is to stop being offended by words and grow up. There are numerous slurs that could be thrown at me based on my racial heritage, but not a single one of them would offend me. Allow me to counter your link with Morgan Freeman.
How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it. If someone says nigger, ignore them. Don't make a big deal about it.
If I call your mother a c--t in front of you and your family I have a feeling you'd get offended.
There's nothing arbitrary about being offended, you just are. It's involuntary
I've heard people insult my mother in front of me and to be honest I just felt sorry for them that they felt as though they needed to stoop down to the level of slinging insults.
Ok but no one is impervious to humiliation, there is a way that someone could push your buttons if they tried hard enough. Being offended by its very definition is 'offensive' - humiliation, anger, hurt feelings - all of these are offensive emotions that people can inflict upon you, people making you feel in a way you don't wish to.
You shouldn't judge people as immature or weak minded or whatever just because they are offended by words
I'm actually interested now as to whether any black people who claim to be genuinely offended by what Orb said have contacted EG, or if this is just another case of white guilt.
Wow, quite the cynic aren't you.
being offended is a choice that's brought on by social pressure, its not something involuntary
Very well written and as much as I dont like the dismissal of orb, it is what's best for continued growth of our community into more mainstream realms. I will be contacting sponsors to tell them I am impressed with your organisation!
I'm glad this happened. I see this word thrown around so much by ragers on ladder that at times I have questioned whether this community that seems in general to condone the usage of the "n-word" is one that I actually want to be a part of, whether I want to be associated with people like this. And here is the thing about its common usage that I see on BNet - it is absolutely meant in a racist way, to suggest that another player is bad because they might belong to a certain race. Call it a joke if you want, but that is just a lie to hide your racism behind. The condonement I see on BNet isn't even tacit - typically in a team game calling someone a n----- well elicit more than a few LOLs. When Orb acts that way in public - and make no mistake, when he is laddering as "Orb", he is acting as a public figure - it sends a message to the rest of the community that it is OK to do as he did.
Great post Alex, and I'm glad that you stepped up to show some leadership here. Unfortunately there are many posters here who see no problem with a highly visible community member behaving as Orb did. From comments such as above ("I cannot respect your post. Expecting universal condemnation of behaviour that does not conform to your personal values strikes me as a terrible thing." - Hailplays) there are simply those in our community who think that racism is fine. To answer Hailplays, condemning racism in all its forms is not simply a belief of Alex Garfield's - it is a fundamental tenant of the global society in which we all live, and it's reasonable to expect nearly universal condemnation, excluding racists of course.