I apologize for confusing the two of you, however the irony is lost on me.

As to the "you haven't proved she is a racist because you haven't proven her assertions wrong" charge, my posts of 7 Apr 10:33, 11:52, and 12:48 prove that to be an utterly disingenous claim. I also said it was my belief that "we ourselves have the burden upon us to know historic fact well enough to be able to distinguish between ideology and history. Between fact and bias."

If you look back to that post, you will see I am stating that it isn't necessary for me to give the history of the Middle East to "justify" my remarks about Celtic Soul. Rather, the onus is on each individual to educate themselves about that history if they don't know it, and decide for themselves who is racist, and who isn't.

I need not address every point a racist poster makes, to "prove" they are racist. At some point, for there to be any meaningful consensus on what is racist and what isn't, we must see racist remarks for what they are.

I also disagree that it is counter-productive to communicate one's displeasure with racist behavior when it rears its ugly head in one's presence. Quite the contrary, I believe it is one of the few effective deterrents society has to see that behavior changed. I'm not going to shut up and go away because people don't like to have racist behavior occurring in their midst brought to their attention. I'm glad to ruin everyone's day, if it will change the thinking and behavior of a single racist, or someone who claims to be anti-racist, but doesn't have the guts to call someone they have fond feelings for, on their racist behavior.

If enough members (particularly the more respected members) of this forum started calling out those members who are consistently guilty of showing their racist, bigoted colors here, either overtly or subtly, we would soon see a dramatic decline in that behavior, I assure you. I've seen it happen.

If people here are serious about wanting to make this a strong, positive community, they wouldn't just keep paying lipservice to being anti-racist, and would instead do something about it when it rears it's head here.

Another good reason why I choose to remain an outsider--I'm not willing to call myself a member of any community that tolerates the hate we so often see expressed and defended in this forum.

Now, I'm done with this thread. The rest of you can do with it what you will.