*bangs her head against the wall*

[conuly]

How do you get through to people?

Okay, let me try. Male parents are fathers. Female parents are mothers. IF you wish to claim that men have no maternal instincts, ever, but women do, please don't use the argument "they couldn't possibly have the same instincts, because men have paternal instincts, and no I can't explain how they're different, there's a whole letter different, you moron!"

That's just confusing.

And when you finally realize that you're being slow, please, the appropriate response is most emphatically NOT "how many kids did you say you had?"

That. Is. Not. Relevant.

Interestingly, this conversation would never have started if the OP hadn't broken a cardinal rule - never say "I don't mean to be prejudiced" or "No offense" or anything even remotely resembling a disclaimer before saying something prejudiced of offensive. If you feel you need to say the former in order to say the latter, don't say it. If you really must say it, please, you're less likely to seem prejudiced or offensive if you just leave the stupid disclaimer out.

Free advice. Take it.

And yes, I know, I'm IN bed, I'm going to sleep now.

Link posted at request of kinda original poster. Do me a favor, tell me when she started using the word "typical", would you?

Comments

sigh.

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

i know what you mean about the whole "i don't mean to be prejudiced." thing. i get it all the time. people are like, "i dont mean to be prejudiced, but i think homosexuality is disgusting." and then on the inside, i cry, on the outside, i have to put on the front that i respect their opinion, when i really want to hack at them with a machete.

Re: sigh.

[conuly]

Seriously. The idea that you need a disclaimer is a BIG WARNING SIGN.

The other day, there was a post in customers_suck:

I don't mean to be racist, but the other day a group of asian teens came in and was rude.

After that sentence, race wasn't mentioned at all. The mention of race was completely superflous. In no world would she say "20 white teens", and all rudeness was better attributed to their being teenagers than their being asian (sorry, duckies), but then she had the nerve to get upset when I suggested she just take the reference to race out if she thought she had to apologise for it.

Re: sigh.

[toastedtuna.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I agree with you. No need to bring race into it. A group of teens just happened to be rude, and it doesn't matter what ethnicity they were. They could have been anything, but just HAPPENED to be Asian. So what?

Do they have some kind of special rudeness other people lack?

Maybe because they were Asian, and so hard working, they were working hard at being rude?

Or maybe they were rude because they're so good at math.

Or maybe they were rude because they are sick of doing laundry for white people.

Or maybe they were rude because their mothers own nail salons and none of the teens could get an appointment in their mothers' shops?

GEEZ!

Re: sigh.

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

fucking stupid ignorant people. like i try to not see race at all. i have a diverse smattering of friends of all everything, and i admit, sometimes it is hard not to stereotype when they fit them, (as in the sassy black friends i happen to have, who fully embody everything about sass) but really, stuff like that is uncalled for.