FW: Re: Request for member withdrawal (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I sent the following to a member instead of the list as a whole, which
was my intention.

>
> 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.
>

"I've always thought the term "colored" was a nice term for Negro  . . .
Darkies is not so bad.  "
"I think we can watusi off as a nice name for black people.  Watusi's
the dance made for romance."

The above quotes are, at a minimum, paternalistic and offensive, and if
they are not deliberately racist, it is only because the one making the
statement is willfully ignorant about the way he speaks.  If I were in a
room full of people, and anyone were to make these statements, I'd
certainly cringe.  To take a term from libel law, Tom has "recklessly
disregarded" what any reasonable and educated person would know about
the way these terms are generally accepted in 21st century America.  And
despite having been told otherwise, he steadfastly ignores advice and
continues with his boorish comments.

"I apologize if anything I said was taken as offensive." -- This is not
a sincere apology.  An apology shouldn't be done conditionally -- one
should accept responsibility for his actions, admit he was wrong, and
apologize unreservedly.

Tom, what you have said was offensive, to me and others.


Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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