In 2006 I started this thread thread.cfm?threadid=88950 to explore what could be appropriate ways for Mudcatters to publicly respond to racist posts.

Here's an excerpt of my first post to that thread:

Subject: BS: Responses To Racism
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 01:34 PM

...I had decided to leave Mudcat because I felt that I was blindsided by what was -in my opinion- a particularly offensive post by a Mudcat member. The thread's title appeared to be one that had nothing to do with race or racism. The offensive post was the thread's first comment. After that first comment, most posters on that thread ignored the offensive comment and talked about issues related to that thread's subject. However, at least one member commented about the racist comment before I posted my comment.
After I wrote my comment, several other persons posted comments that also spoke out about that first comment.

In hindsight, I believe that if I had not had a particularly traumatic day at work, I may not have reacted as I did to that post. But my work is often traumatic, so perhaps that is not the reason.

I just think that I had one of those moments when it all became too much. As I said in my post that was deleted along with the rest of that thread, what bothered me more than the racist comment was the fact that most people ignored it. [btw, there was absolutely no allusions-that post was openly racist]

Ignoring racist and otherwise offensive posts may be the perferred strategy for Mudcat forum's members. I admit that this is the tactic that I usually use. Most of the times, I don't even open a BNP thread, or other such threads. But I'm wondering now if the practice [policy?] of ignoring such post might not send a message that Mudcat doesn't mind racism.

Furthermore, deleting the responses to that racist posts may mean that teaching & sharing moments were lost. But since the offensive post was the first one in the thread, would my comment and others speaking out against it make sense if only the first comment and not the entire thread been deleted? Should the first post been deleted and the thread declared closed? That is not my call to make.

But I wonder what folks here think should be the appropriate response when I and others are confronted with racist and offensive remarks.

If we email Joe and ask that the thread be deleted or closed, then if we feel the need or the desire to share our feelings about this experience in the public forum, where should we do that? Maybe some people might think that sharing a personal response to racism shouldn't be done at all on this public forum. However, I disagree.

That's the main reason why I'm back. I feel the need to talk to 'Catters about my response {reaction?}to that offensive post and the lack of comments in the thread about that post. I should say that a number of members have PMed me to say that had they seen that post, they would have responded on that thread. I thanked them privately and I want to thank them publicly.

And perhaps I should say what should go without saying-I have talked to people in the real world outside of Mudcat, about this experience. But I feel the need to know what 'Catters think about this. Should people ignore offensive posts? If so, what about the feelings those posts cause? I think that ignoring them would be unhealthy. And what about sharing feelings and insight about these types of experiences with the community at large? Isn't there some value to that?

I guess I could have stayed gone. But I like it here. And as some of you have said in your PMs to me, the racist poster would win if I decided to leave because of him.

So here I am. ...

**

To quote a portion of another post that I wrote to that thread:

"It was not the lack of involvement of lurkers that bothered me [for how would anyone know who's lurking]. What bothered me {and "bothered" is a mild word for my what I felt} was the fact that so many people who posted on that thread chose to ignore the offensive post and instead focused on other facets of what was given as the thread's topic.

This may have been their way of registering their distaste for the offensive post, but as I have said, I had {have} problems with that approach".

**

More than three years later I believe that people who were posting on that thread-who continued posting as though that offensive, clearly racist "joke" wasn't there- may have been adhering to the Mudcat policy to ignore such posts until a moderator deletes them. But I still remember how I felt blindsided when I read that post and it still bothers me that people continued chatting as though that post wasn't there.

And what message does ignoring such a posts give to people who may have happened upon that now deleted discussion thread (which was about Hurricane Katrina) from Internet search engines? It's possible that if Mudcatters (besides me) had posted a statement which echoes what is written in Mudcat's FAQs-something like "Mudcat don't tolerate or approve of racist jokes and racist insults" the Mudcat member who wrote that insult would have 1., learned not to post such insults and 2. any People of Color reading that message would have been more inclined to participate on this discussion forum.
Yes posting such statements could have resulted in that poster adding more filth, but still I'm not convinced that ignoring those kinds of messages and their subsequent and usually rapid deletion is the only appropriate answer.

[I recall that one other person wrote something like "That was uncalled for". But I either cross-posted with that poster or s/he posted shortly after I did. The entire thread was quickly deleted-In hindsight I don't think it should have been. I think the my comment and the other Mudcatter's* comment should have remained on that thread as well as the other comments about that thread's topic that preceded those comments and were posted after our comments. In that way, that thread could have been a learning experience about how this community responses to racism.

* I was so "outdone" by that racist joke that I can't recall who wrote that comment and I never thanked that person. I do so now.

Perhaps ignoring those types of posts may be the best policy, but even when those posts are quickly deleted by moderators, if they happen to be read by the person who is directly or indirectly targeted, "ignore/delete" doesn't address how the person targeted heals from such an experience. And it doesn't provide any public affirmation of this community's position about race as-for instance-the overwhelming majority of posts on the BNP: What would you do? thread does.

I share this not to reopen that thread but because I believe it adds another layer to the discussion on this thread-which I sincerely hope will not be deleted because I believe that such responsible self-examining discussions are important to the health of a discussion forum or any other community/organization.