Request for member withdrawal

[Bill Palmer]

Over-reaction, to say the very least.

In my one year of participation in this list, I have seen obscene personal
insults which go way way beyond "insensitive". And most of them sent in the
direction of Tom Z, whose main offense seems to be failure to conform to
academic orthodoxy.  Where were all the indignant calls for withdrawal then?

And it seems so bizarre for a bunch of whites (I'm assuming here, obviously)
to decide what is offensive to those of African descent.

The whole issue is beyond ridiculous.  Just venturing a guess that this is
just another example of white liberal guilt masquerading as righteous anger.

And I agree with Tom's request that someone specify what remark was so
insensitive.

Bill Palmer


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Quinion" <wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 5:01 AM
Subject: Re: Request for member withdrawal


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Michael Quinion <wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG>
> Organization: World Wide Words
> Subject:      Re: Request for member withdrawal
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> May I suggest a pause for reflection?
>
> Mr Zurinskas has for some time annoyed members of this list (me included)
> because of his unconventional and ignorant comments on linguistics. That
> doesn't in my book make him a troll. He's not here to deliberately disrupt
> proceedings or have fun at our expense, which is the essence of trollish
> behaviour.
>
> This outbreak of offence over one post of his feels to me like a severe
> over-reaction, expressed in one or two cases in intemperate language that
> I find disturbingly aggressive. His comments were ill-judged. But they
> didn't appear to me (admittedly from a different cultural milieu) to be
> deliberately racist.
>
>
> --
> Michael Quinion
> Editor, World Wide Words
> E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
> Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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