The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #37626   Message #527793
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
14-Aug-01 - 01:09 PM
Thread Name: This site is NOT like all the rest.
Subject: RE: This site is NOT like all the rest.
Just as an experiment why don't you try recasting the whole discussion from the point of view of an established white community reacting to the concerns of a young black female who is feeling that she is not welcome despite being intelligent and polite. (sophocleese)

I like thought experiments - but I don't see this one as working.

"I don't like some things about this place" is different from "There are things about this place which make it specially hard for people with these characteristics..." Such as being black, or old, or male or female and so on. And I haven't seen anything like that being mentioned.

Noone is complaining that they are being discriminated about for some reason analogous to those, so far as I can see. It's more as if there were people complaining that a folk club or a festival was discriminating about people with beards - but I've got a beard and half the other people there have, and we all seem to be accepted without any problem. So there must be something else that's the problem. But what is it supposed to be?