Just a little test I did... [racism test]

[adaym]

Apparently, saying Pakistani is 'offensive' whereas saying Belgian is not. I did this test today because I just wanted to see which moderator was a racist - turns out the unsuspecting victim was Bolt660. This isn't a personal attack on him because he just got caught up in it, could've been anyone, but why was the thread 'Pakistanis' closed whereas the 'Belgians' was not? It's been a problem on this forum for a while because the word **** - short for Pakistani is apparently offensive even though we call the Americans, yanks. We get called Brits and the Australian's get called Aussies/Ozzys.

I was astounded when the thread was closed to be honest.

Belgian thread
http://www.habboxforum.com/showthread.php?t=608462

Pakistani thread
http://www.habboxforum.com/showthread.php?t=608549

Just something to mull over and deal with/debate w/e. Feedback.

[Immenseman]

lmao. even without talking to you i knew you had done it as a test and my original post in the second thread was "testing!!". i know not everyone is as switched on/addicted as me but still. i don't blame bolt660 i just blame the politically correct world we live in, where people are frightened of controversy.

[adaym]

lmao. even without talking to you i knew you had done it as a test and my original post in the second thread was "testing!!". i know not everyone is as switched on/addicted as me but still. i don't blame bolt660 i just blame the politically correct world we live in, where people are frightened of controversy.
exactly and I don't believe a forum with insecure children registering should have this sort of linear view on these sorts of things...

[Martin]

I'm sorry for closing that thread. Whilst I was closing it, I did actually send a PM to a super mod asking their advice, as I myself was unsure.

I should have waited for confirmation, and for that I appologise.


I think the main reason I acted like I did, was the way the thread was constructed with the "lmao" in the first post, as I thought It perhaps could have offended a pakistani person, should they have come across the thread.

I understand that it is spam, and so therefore it has been re-oppened.


I will admit this mistake, and hope you can sort of see why I acted the way I did. I havn't been in the job long, and sometimes my judgements can be a little out. Hopefully with more experience this will improve.


Sorry guys!

Martin

[Immenseman]

he's so my favourite moderator. public apologies aren't easy - when mods have apologised to me - always through PM. +rep if I can :)

[adaym]

There's absolutely no need for you to apologise. I've said it's not your fault it's just you were there at the right time. Any other moderator would've done the exact same.

[Hecktix]

I was the S'Mod Martin contacted about this thread and as soon as I saw it I knew that it was harsh for it to be closed.

Didn't realise it was a test though :P

At the end of the day my view is that fair enough you can create a thread entitled 'pakistanis' however the content within that thread is what determines whether it is appropriate or not.

Earlier there was a thread posted about pakistanis in a very negative/piss take way - obviously that was inappropriate whereas your thread not saying anything about pakistanis, isn't inappropriate.

In reference to the word **** being filtered, it's known that this word can cause offence because there are scrotes within our society which use this word to 'insult' anybody who is of arabic/indian ethnicity. It's offensive to someone from Iraq, or India to be called a **** when they aren't even from pakistan, it's simply generalising because of the colour of their skin.

I think it's interesting that Bolt's natural reaction was to close the thread and like you say the majority of people would have done the same, literally just because you said a word. However Bolt did question his natural reaction and PM'd me and got the response I sent him.

I'm not quite sure why this debate is necessary for feedback tho?

[Yoshimitsui]

This situation is very alike to what happens in real life, this type of incident seems to crop up all the time and is instantaneously racist despite how references to other nationalities is not. The situation seems to have turned into one of which you can do no right and makes people over cautious as they are believed to be causing offence in the slightest remark. I have my opinion on how ridiculous it has got but this is a massive debate in it's self and despite it was a mistake this is more of an issue for a debate so to speak.

Back to being forum specific, the moderator in question obviously went through the process of believing there is something wrong in the way i explained above and has apologised and the situation sorted.

[Blinger1]

We get called Brits and the Australian's get called Aussies/Ozzys.
I would like to say that Australians call English people Poms, not Brits ;)

And also, what is a belgian :S

[adaym]

I would like to say that Australians call English people Poms, not Brits ;)

And also, what is a belgian :S
Yes, but collectively we are Brits. And it is a person from Belgium.

[AgnesIO]

It would have been even harder for Martin considering it was in Spam.

If it was in world politics or something you could make a decent decision, whilst when the thread was in spam you have to think 'Is he taking the piss?'

[GommeInc]

I would like to say that Australians call English people Poms, not Brits ;)

And also, what is a belgian :S
Where did the word 'pom' come from, to describe/name brits? Is it something to do with apples and potatoes? :P

[e5]

I think it would have been more effective to do

Pakistanis <- title
i h8 them <- content

then

belgians <- title
i h8 them <- content

see if they both got closed, instead of lmao...

You would have gotten in trouble, but if both were closed you'd have proved a point, same if only one was :)

[Robbie]

Where did the word 'pom' come from, to describe/name brits? Is it something to do with apples and potatoes? :P

I think it was something to do with when the convicts where taken over to Aus, the Brits taking them had like pom things on their hats.

Something like that anyway.

[StefanWolves]

*REMOVED*

Anyway, fair play to the MOD for apologising. Other people wouldn't have done the same.

Edited by invincible (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not make comments likely to offend others.

[Jordy]

*REMOVED*

Anyway, fair play to the MOD for apologising. Other people wouldn't have done the same.Technically not as it's their ancestors who were prisoners not them. It's also worth noting the population contains a lot of migrants and also native Australians (Aboriginals?).

As for the short word for a Pakistani, although there is little sense in why it's so offensive, it's society which determins the context of words and how appropriate they are, not Habboxforum.

Saying the word is not at all acceptable (Anton Du Beke in the news last week for example) and is almost always used in a deregatory manner, usually intended to be deliberately racist or incite hatred towards Arabs/Pakistanis/Indians.

[Blinger1]

*REMOVED*

*REMOVED*
to reply in this whole thread. Man, if i could, i would -rep you again.
Not all Australians are prisoners, as whoever above me said, there are aboriginals who are indigenous to Australia, and then Europeans/Americans/Asians etc have migrated to Australia.

God, how ignorant can you get :eusa_wall:eusa_wall:eusa_wall

Edited by invincible (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not insult other forum members.

[AgnesIO]

*REMOVED* to reply in this whole thread. Man, if i could, i would -rep you again.
Not all Australians are prisoners, as whoever above me said, there are aboriginals who are indigenous to Australia, and then Europeans/Americans/Asians etc have migrated to Australia.

God, how ignorant can you get :eusa_wall:eusa_wall:eusa_wall


-Repped him again for you ;)

And I have to agree that is a really ignorant thing to say Wolves. 'Technically' if we go by 'Technically' then half the world are prisoners :\

EDIT: Cant -rep

[StefanWolves]

Why are you -repping me? forgive me for being stereotypical. Christ.

And lol, what? wow what a bold statement 'If we got by 'technically' then half of the world would be prizonerzzz!!!!' ~ Sorry, but is that some sort of a sick joke?

[AgnesIO]

Why are you -repping me? forgive me for being stereotypical. Christ.

And lol, what? wow what a bold statement 'If we got by 'technically' then half of the world would be prizonerzzz!!!!' ~ Sorry, but is that some sort of a sick joke?


No its not a sick joke mate. But Britain once basically owned half the world 'prisoners'

And lol at -repping me for trying to -rep you lool - so cool.

[H0BJ0B]

Reminds me of the latest Big Brother, where Marcus got called up for speaking with an indian accent mocking Sree (SP?). He was absolutely right saying that mocking any other person with an accent (like the Irish guy) wouldn't have got him in trouble.

[Jin]

It is because the shortened 4 letter term is deemed as a derogatory, racial, slur due to its use in the past before your lifetime it is still used today as a racial term and in a UK court of law would be regarded as racial abuse.

IIt would be similar reasons as to why in certain places in america it may be unsuitable to call an "African american" - "black"

There is no deep background story to this there is no analytical word play involved. Just because calling someone a Brit isn't offensive doesn't mean that using that term isn't.

Though in all fairness I can understand where bolt660 was coming from.

Anyway,
Thread Closed