Racism on the servers Options

[MonkeyFiend]

A quick (and admittedly not well-thought through/researched comment regarding racist language on the servers):



The server rules say NO racist language, however each night when the rules are spammed it seems to spawn a debate from individuals who are looking to argue, troll or push the boundaries of the server rules, so let me explain:

No racist languge: No terms to be used on the servers that are generally considered racist and derogatory.

It does not matter if you're 'joking' or an in-joke with a friend
It does not matter if you are black/chinese etc yourself
It does not matter if you are quoting film/tv/music/books etc

We ban people for use of derogatory terms, not for generalised terms, such as black, asian but I will quite happily ban for context too e.g. "I fucking hate all black people"

Examples that have no place in general conversation:

Nigger/Coon/Sambo/wog
Gook/Chink
Paki
Cracker/Wigger

Now specifically we're not going as far as restricting swearwords (again a lot of this is context based - I have no issue with a friend calling me a cunt, but if a random stranger said it in RL then that would be very different).Again constant harassment will cross a line.

The use of swearwords therefore has to be allowed, but do bear in mind constant harassment is not.

The usual arguments that come up:

Racism for Nationality/gender/sexuality/hair colour etc. - These things are not wholly racial. Some of these things may be used as insults but may also be used in pride e.g. I'm gay/french/ginger and proud! Some people may consider them insults but this is generally down to personal opinion. Likewise if you google racist terms for british people, the vast majority of british would not care if people are using these phrases, whereas some of the terms listed above are found offensive by the majority, hence the selective nature - you shout nigger on the server, you'll get banned. You shout Limey! on the server will not. (probably)


Of the gay friends I have, a couple don't mind being called gay/fags etc., one doesn't mind being called gay but hates being called a fag. Essentially then it's down to the perspective of the individual involved. Compare this to say asians being called 'paki's' - I've yet to hear from someone of that ethnicity that is fine with it. I speak from experience here on having dated a Mauritian for several years and the amount of unwarranted abuse she received appalled me. Again context and constant harassment will cross a line.

Religion: likewise for aspects that are down to personal choice you cannot be racist against a religion, taste in music, being a vegetarian etc.,. You are free to bash a person for being a vegan as much as you are free to bash someone for believing in the flying spaghetti monster. Again constant harassment will cross a line.

Freedom of Speech: It's a great thing. I'm fully supportive of freedom of speech on the internet, even the more extreme end (since I believe discussion of extreme views is a good way to highlight their flaws), however the game server is not the internets-in-general. It's based in the UK where interestingly we have no official freedom of speech (aside from the general human rights act), the server is a private server where we can set the rules; it's the best place to have a game of chivalry but not really the best for deep thoughtful discussion (as that tends to distract people who do actually want to play). We're not trying to be the internet police, however we have set some minimal rules of behaviour on our privately run servers, which we enforce at our discretion. if you want to debate these rules, Great! then do so somewhere like here :-)

In respect of does "using racist language = you are racist". Possibly not. However without a great investigation in motive and context of the comments the only fair way to deal with this is strictly - the admins are not paid, they are there to play games and enjoy themselves in a friendly and fun environment. It is not their job to try and root out meaning behind racist comments to judge whether they are in fact in jest or whatever excuse is being used.

A small side note is that most people using racist terms are idiots. They are either actual racists (who think that's someone's ethnicity makes them inferior) and I want none of these on the servers or they think it's edgy or cool to call people a nigga etc. likewise I don't want this sort of imbecile on the server. Much the same as IRL - if I was down the pub and people were using the same language they'd be challenged, however the armchair warriors behind the protection of their monitors push the boundaries simply because they think they can and get away with it. A small thing about language is that they also tend to be the people looking to get a rise or troll, by having the bare minimal rules on language we tend to root out these idiots since they seem unable to obey the most basic rules as they tend to also cross every other rule we set.

As I've said before the server is a bit like a house party. We're hosting it and covering the costs and we're letting a bunch of people in. If you had a house party and someone turned up and started criticising the house/hosts or spouting a load of racist drivel you'd hardly be surprised when they were warned/asked to leave or forcibly booted onto the street. The exact same applies to the server.

Hope that clears it up for some of the troublemakers I'll point towards this thread

Monkey