Re: CHAT: OFF: RANT: OFFENSIVE: TAN: CHAT: Re: Ebonic Christmas

Context is everything here. I'm sure that if I had sent this to a certain
black friend of mine (I call him "nigger", and he calls me "stupid" as pet
names) we would have laughed a hoot just before he lampoons my
fundamentalist christian or conservative views. But when you send this to
someone that doesn't have that familiarity with you, or has had these
stereotypes heaped on them by racist jerks rudely and in malice, you will
offend them. That's their context, and you really should be careful what you
say in a public forum, Abrigone, unless you want to offend everyone and have
no friends.
Don't be offended that you offended them. Even if you believe they are
overly-sensitive, you can only fight fire with water.
I have often had to endure a racism of another kind: blacks that hate me
because they assume I am like some other jerk that they ran across. As I was
walking in downtown Seattle one evening, a certain pair of black men
approached my wife and I. One of them burst into a fantastically eager
greeting, "Hey, how are you?" and offered to shake my hand. Not accustomed
to total strangers greeting me like a king, I stood amazed and confused and
barely managed to take his hand. As they walked away, I heard him whisper,
"see, I told you the m-f's hate us."
Letting it go or screaming the outrage I felt wouldn't have educated him. I
chased him down, apologized, and took him out for a chocolate chip cookie.
Now nobody's asking you to sacrifice your first born for the sins of white
slavery, just an apology over what is a minor issue to you (a poem, a
joke!), and a major one to them.
Be a man. If you meant no harm and did not wish to offend, say so.