fhplotterywheel | Brains! Falling from the sky!

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brainstorming

Brains! Falling from the sky!

Time for the monthly brainstorming post, wooo!!!

OCD is ~~coming~~ up!

Not dirty.

You know the straits are the real minority on this island right?

That isn't actually the point of a gay-straight alliance. I realize you probably meant this as a joke, but it's not funny -- just disrespectful.

That's not the point.

Many of the students here are coming from backgrounds where they've been persecuted or abused for who or what they are; be it sexuality, powers, parentage, or something else. That history and emotional toll of stigmatization does not magically go away just because you're at a new school, or because you might suddenly be the 'majority'. (Which I dispute is the case, but whatever.)

Knowing intellectually that your new friends don't mind is one thing, but actually realizing they support you? Completely? That they're not afraid to stand up and say so? That's priceless.

Is it really necessary to jump on someone for making a bad joke?

Jokes like that, though, usually indicate a lack of understanding. I don't think anyone's jumping on anyone so much as explaining why it's not appropriate.

I understand that but I think this is the wrong forum for it.

That may be, but it's the wrong forum for that joke then, too.

I respectfully disagree. He made the statement in public; it's reasonable to take issue with it in public. We all understand he meant it as a joke (most likely), but there's still a lot of baggage in jokes like that.

Yeah and if anyone else had made the joke, I doubt anything would have been said.

I hope we'd have the courage to stand up to whoever said it.

But no, this isn't the first time he's said something many people in the game would, reasonably, find offensive. I ... really don't think the problem is on our end.

That's an assumption you're free to make, but I honestly wouldn't leave a statement like that unchallenged regardless of who said it. Ignorance is ignorance, and like I said, no one was jumping on him so much as explaining why the joke was inappropriate.

Actually, for the record, I get along really well with the player, and I like him a lot. Which is why I was comfortable enough to say it in the first place. Anyone else, I probably would have IMed a dozen people first to ask if I was reading it right.

I am much more comfortable calling out my friends than complete strangers.

I would have said something no matter who made the joke. I was just busy obsessively counting up characters to prove to myself that it was wrong as well as unfunny, and other people got there before me.

No one's deliberately picking on the player. I was around when that was an issue, and I think you remember my opinion on that at the time. That's not what's happening here.

That said, could we all please take a breath? I think the point's been well and truly explored.

This forum is where the joke was made -- letting it stand unchallenged implies tacit agreement with its (however unintended) bigotry.

I don't mean to jump on anyone, and I'm pretty much the most non-confrontational person you'll ever meet. But I'm also not someone who will stay awkwardly silent when faced with a 'bad joke' like that, and I also have the right to express why I feel it was inappropriate.

If people brushed off every single racist, sexist, or bigoted remark with the excuse that it's 'just a joke', and that made it okay, then this would be a very sad world to live in.

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Brains! Falling from the sky!

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