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Monkey See. Monkey Do. Oops $12 million.

lionking said:
Well the racism can’t be undone and the school has not apologised, so punishment will be financial. Seems fair to me.
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You don't know if the school had been given any opportunity to deal with this. A reading of the OP suggests that the boys ran straight to their lawyer.
 
rjh01 said:
So treating white students like this is ok, but if done on black ones this is racist?
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Here are two historical art world depicting a lynching, one of a white man and one of a black man. Do you think perhaps there might have been something racist about one and not the other?

Image 1

Image 2

Especially if the context was removed and the words "Hang 'Em High" were added...
 
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PhantomWolf said:
Here are two historical art world depicting a lynching, one of a white man and one of a black man. Do you think perhaps there might have been something racist about one and not the other?

Image 1

Image 2

Especially if the context was removed and the words "Hang 'Em High" were added...
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The difference between the two images is that the white person was hanged because he was a horse thief. The second image the black person was hanged because he was black. This is an explicit racist attack. Now if he was hanged because he was a horse thief that might be a different matter. I will ignore the fact that lynching is wrong in itself. There is nothing in the first image that even says it was a lynching and not legitimate punishment. Or even that the victim is white.
 
rjh01 said:
The difference between the two images is that the white person was hanged because he was a horse thief. The second image the black person was hanged because he was black. This is an explicit racist attack. Now if he was hanged because he was a horse thief that might be a different matter. I will ignore the fact that lynching is wrong in itself. There is nothing in the first image that even says it was a lynching and not legitimate punishment. Or even that the victim is white.
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And in the same way a photo of white students referring to monkeys isn't racist because there is no history of white people being called monkeys in a racist manner, however when it comes to black people....
 
psionl0 said:
You don't know if the school had been given any opportunity to deal with this. A reading of the OP suggests that the boys ran straight to their lawyer.
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As is their right. The cost of poor a poor school culture. You would think every education HR department, school district and up would be all over this stuff and running regular courses on how not to show your racist contempt for black people. Obviously they haven’t and it is going to cost them. It’s the only way they will learn.

This sort of thing should not be happening. Punitive legal costs will help stamp it out. Lawyers making a lit of money is a trifling side issue. “They are just doing it for the money” strikes me as a distraction from our racist societies.
 
If anyone is struggling with understanding the problem with this, drop in to your HR dept Monday for a rundown and maybe get yourself on a course.
 
Sideroxylon said:
This sort of thing should not be happening. Punitive legal costs will help stamp it out. Lawyers making a lit of money is a trifling side issue. “They are just doing it for the money” strikes me as a distraction from our racist societies.
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This is sheer lunacy! When did political correctness drown out freedom of speech?

This "we will not stop until everybody is afraid to open their mouth" madness is everything that is wrong with this world.
 
psionl0 said:
This is sheer lunacy! When did political correctness drown out freedom of speech?

This "we will not stop until everybody is afraid to open their mouth" madness is everything that is wrong with this world.
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Freedom for white teachers to **** on the dignity of black students. Lets drop that in the same dumpster with the freedom to call fire in a cinema and nothing of value will be lost. Love the PC framing of this situation - its clear that so often kick backs against PC is frustration with not being allowed to dehumanise minorities. Wake up to yourself.
 
psionl0 said:
This is sheer lunacy! When did political correctness drown out freedom of speech?

This "we will not stop until everybody is afraid to open their mouth" madness is everything that is wrong with this world.
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Just to clarify things, are you saying that teachers (or anyone else for that matter) comparing black kids to monkeys is an exercise in free speech?
 
Sideroxylon said:
Freedom for white teachers to **** on the dignity of black students. Lets drop that in the same dumpster with the freedom to call fire in a cinema and nothing of value will be lost. Love the PC framing of this situation - its clear that so often kick backs against PC is frustration with not being allowed to dehumanise minorities. Wake up to yourself.
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It's not that nothing should be done about an act of bad taste. It's the disproportionality of it all. This is just a trivial offense. Cashing in on it is not an appropriate response.
 
psionl0 said:
It's not that nothing should be done about an act of bad taste. It's the disproportionality of it all. This is just a trivial offense. Cashing in on it is not an appropriate response.
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You're wrong. Those kids will remember for the rest of their lives that a teacher called them monkeys.

I still remember a time in the 9th grade (1985), when I corrected an adult at some event in our high school gym by informing her I was a boy and she responded that if I didn't want to be mistaken for a girl I should get a haircut and lose weight. Every time that memory bubbles to the surface (and it has, often), I feel the shame she wanted me to feel followed by anger that she went out of her way to **** on a 13-year-old kid. Maybe if I'd been able to "cash in" or at least see her suffer consequences for shaming a kid for his appearance, I wouldn't feel the same way all these years later.
 
psionl0 said:
It's not that nothing should be done about an act of bad taste. It's the disproportionality of it all. This is just a trivial offense. Cashing in on it is not an appropriate response.
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I personally think making it as much as possible without harming the education of other kids sends a very good message to those that control the thing.

If it takes this and/or more bad luck.

Sort your **** out and get rid of racism or get hammered


Edit: can't actually believe anyone would argue against this
 
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psionl0 said:
It's not that nothing should be done about an act of bad taste. It's the disproportionality of it all. This is just a trivial offense. Cashing in on it is not an appropriate response.
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White privilege is why you think dehumanising minorities is trivial.
 
JoeMorgue said:
Neither is "I can't be racist because 'I don't see race.'"
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I think it would be if it were actually true. The problem here is that I don't actually believe it's true. The teacher(s) didn't not know that the kids were black, nor did they not know that calling them monkeys would be offensive. It's possible that they wanted to make the joke independent of it's racist overtones and not because of them, but they can't claim not to have been aware of those overtones, nor how it would have been taken by the students, and their peers.
 
Babbylonian said:
You're wrong. Those kids will remember for the rest of their lives that a teacher called them monkeys.

I still remember a time in the 9th grade (1985), when I corrected an adult at some event in our high school gym by informing her I was a boy and she responded that if I didn't want to be mistaken for a girl I should get a haircut and lose weight. Every time that memory bubbles to the surface (and it has, often), I feel the shame she wanted me to feel followed by anger that she went out of her way to **** on a 13-year-old kid. Maybe if I'd been able to "cash in" or at least see her suffer consequences for shaming a kid for his appearance, I wouldn't feel the same way all these years later.
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You have no idea of how cruel humans can be to others, nor of the extent of the harm that this cruelty can cause to the victims. An isolated insult doesn't even begin to compare.
 
psionl0 said:
You have no idea of how cruel humans can be to others, nor of the extent of the harm that this cruelty can cause to the victims. An isolated insult doesn't even begin to compare.
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Angels and minsters of grace defend us! He just told you how cruel his teacher was to him, and how it affected him, and still affects him to this day, AND YOU BELITTLED IT AND DISMISSED IT!
 
lionking said:
Just to clarify things, are you saying that teachers (or anyone else for that matter) comparing black kids to monkeys is an exercise in free speech?
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Yup, that is exactly what he is saying... even if he claims to not to have meant it that way.

Calling Black kids monkeys is not real racism, apparently
 
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