I just noticed spaw's 25 Feb 08 - 04:18 PM post in which he tried to malign my adopted city, the great and powerful Pittsburgh.   

Umm, Spaw, what's the name of that small town you live in?

{Even though I envy it's Halloween customs}.

:o)

**

On a more serious note, I also just noticed peregrina's {mary's} 25 Feb 08 - 04:23 PM and her question "...is could we all here do things to make mudcat easier/more welcoming to you, to people of color generally?

I hope that folks here don't think that I'm saying that Mudcat members and guests have not been welcoming to me. My experience has been that many people here have been very welcoming. In the 3 1/2 years that I've been posting on Mudcat, I've seen a handful of racist comments posted on the public forum. None of those comments were directed towards me but were directed to Black people in general or to a Black celebrity in particular. One awful post that I remember was directed towards Bob Marley. I won't repeat what was said}. But I am still thankful to Peace for his {shall we say} forceful response to that guest who posted that comment.
All this to say that usually once moderators see racist comments from guests or members, they quickly delete those comments. And I'm grateful for that.

I think that race is an "up" subject. What I mean by this is that the subject of race it getting more attention as a result of Barack Obama's candidacy and also even before that. I think one reason for this on an esoteric level is that race is one of the major problems of the 20th century and early centuries that still needs to be resolved.

That being so, it's likely that we {Mudcatters} will continue to talk about race. I'm not suggesting that we don't. I know that sometimes more than other times and some Mudcat threads more than other threads, this is difficult for me. I also am mindful that this is probably true for others regardless of their race/ethnicity.

I just think the difficulty that I feel sometimes "goes with the territory". If it gets too much for me, I take a break from posting to those kinds of threads, or responding to those comments or starting these kinds of threads, or posting to Mudcat itself.

But after I've recharged my batteries, I'm back in the pool again.

Also, when interacting with individuals and groups who are in a minority {and when discussing hot button subjects like race}, I think that one thing people need to do is to try to think about how it might feel walking in that other person's shoes. But that does not mean to tip toe over hot coals. That might come across as being patronizing {a feeling I've not experienced on Mudcat, thank God}.