Ban the r slur

[Cookie Kat]

This month is Disability Pride month in certain states of America. Almost 31 years ago the American's with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed. This was a huge milestone in the disability rights movement, as it meant that people couldn't discriminate against someone solely based on their disability. Throughout history, the disability community like many minority groups has been disenfranchised. As someone who has multiple disabilities including autism, I have experienced discrimination. Often we are treated differently- because people assume that we aren't capable of doing what "normal" able-bodied individuals our age can do. The amount of relentless bullying and harassment we receive is disgusting. Many people use the internet as a way to escape from reality. All too often jokes that are quite offensive and ableist are dismissed by the staff team. They either ignore the situation entirely or say to block/ignore. Ableism is a form of discrimination just like racism and homophobia. When you tell us to block/ignore people, you are implying that you don't care about ableism or the discrimination we face in our daily lives both in real life and online. In particular, I see issues occurring with the usage of the r slur. Many people use it as an "insult-" and that's part of the issue. The r slur was historically used as part of medical terminology- [redacted] While it's now referred to as an intellectual disability, people still associate the r slur with these individuals. When you say the r slur as an INSULT, you are implying that it is inherently BAD to be intellectually disabled. That isn't the only issue with the r slur- similar to the n word, the r slur was used as a way to segregate and justify the mistreatment of the disability community. My suggestion is that the r slur should be treated as hate speech as opposed to disrespect. I have discussed the matter with staff, and I was told that it used to be considered hate speech but then was changed to disrespect. People who think it's okay to make fun of people because of their disability- something a person CANNOT help/control- should not be allowed in the community. When it comes down to it- just think about it like this- my suggestion would mean ableism would be treated the SAME as racism. I do not believe one should be more important than the other. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reply or contact me or @laney

 

[Hallowqueen]

Hello, Echo!

I have made my personal opinions on this clear to you both in the thread made by Laney, and also directly to you via DM as we did have a discussion about this yesterday. I would just like to advise that I believe your use of the slur you are advocating against in this post is quite counter-intuitive - and while I totally understand your point, and reason for including it, I think it is unnecessary.

Most people would agree that ableism is horrible, disgusting and simply should not exist in the current world. While you may feel the current punishment for the use of the R-Slur is not severe enough, it is still definitely punished for, and is strongly disallowed within our community.

Blocking/Ignoring certain people who are not willing to listen to your points on why using the word is horrible and regardless of the circumstance is very ill-intended, is for your own benefit. Most people who still use the word are either doing it out of ignorance without knowing the damaging effects it has, or simply out of ignorance while having the necessary resources and education available to them - in these cases, you’re essentially screaming into the void to get your point across, and so to avoid further upset and arguments, we will continue to advise you to block/ignore a player who is going out of their way to upset you.

If players are using the word to demean other members of the community, you know you are more than welcome to reach out to me in DM and discuss this, and I’m sure any other member of staff would also be happy to have you come and express your concerns to them.

I appreciate you expressing your opinions on this matter, but in this case it is something which Admins+ will need to discuss and re-consider.

Have a nice day/night!

 

[rew]

This month is Disability Pride month in certain states of America. Almost 31 years ago the American's with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed. This was a huge milestone in the disability rights movement, as it meant that people couldn't discriminate against someone solely based on their disability. Throughout history, the disability community like many minority groups has been disenfranchised. As someone who has multiple disabilities including autism, I have experienced discrimination. Often we are treated differently- because people assume that we aren't capable of doing what "normal" able-bodied individuals our age can do. The amount of relentless bullying and harassment we receive is disgusting. Many people use the internet as a way to escape from reality. All too often jokes that are quite offensive and ableist are dismissed by the staff team. They either ignore the situation entirely or say to block/ignore. Ableism is a form of discrimination just like racism and homophobia. When you tell us to block/ignore people, you are implying that you don't care about ableism or the discrimination we face in our daily lives both in real life and online. In particular, I see issues occurring with the usage of the r slur. Many people use it as an "insult-" and that's part of the issue. The r slur was historically used as part of medical terminology- "mental retardation." While it's now referred to as an intellectual disability, people still associate the r slur with these individuals. When you say the r slur as an INSULT, you are implying that it is inherently BAD to be intellectually disabled. That isn't the only issue with the r slur- similar to the n word, the r slur was used as a way to segregate and justify the mistreatment of the disability community. My suggestion is that the r slur should be treated as hate speech as opposed to disrespect. I have discussed the matter with staff, and I was told that it used to be considered hate speech but then was changed to disrespect. People who think it's okay to make fun of people because of their disability- something a person CANNOT help/control- should not be allowed in the community. When it comes down to it- just think about it like this- my suggestion would mean ableism would be treated the SAME as racism. I do not believe one should be more important than the other. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reply or contact me or @laney

context matters, and if it's in an insulting manner towards somebody, the word is not allowed and you will be muted for using it. I believe a mute is not warranted if used in a joking, non-malicious manner. Examples:
"You're an r-word" is not allowed and will get you muted, while saying "Damn I'm kinda r-adjective" is not making fun of any group of the mentally ill, just poking fun at something (I guess) dumb you did. In that way, I believe it should be treated differently than e.g. the n-word because you can't really have a context where that one isn't discriminatory.

If it's being used against people with some kind of disability, they can ask to not refer to them in that way, or block if needed. I believe it's a good enough system.

 

[Cookie Kat]

Hello, Echo!

I have made my personal opinions on this clear to you both in the thread made by Laney, and also directly to you via DM as we did have a discussion about this yesterday. I would just like to advise that I believe your use of the slur you are advocating against in this post is quite counter-intuitive - and while I totally understand your point, and reason for including it, I think it is unnecessary.

Most people would agree that ableism is horrible, disgusting and simply should not exist in the current world. While you may feel the current punishment for the use of the R-Slur is not severe enough, it is still definitely punished for, and is strongly disallowed within our community.

Blocking/Ignoring certain people who are not willing to listen to your points on why using the word is horrible and regardless of the circumstance is very ill-intended, is for your own benefit. Most people who still use the word are either doing it out of ignorance without knowing the damaging effects it has, or simply out of ignorance while having the necessary resources and education available to them - in these cases, you’re essentially screaming into the void to get your point across, and so to avoid further upset and arguments, we will continue to advise you to block/ignore a player who is going out of their way to upset you.

If players are using the word to demean other members of the community, you know you are more than welcome to reach out to me in DM and discuss this, and I’m sure any other member of staff would also be happy to have you come and express your concerns to them.

I appreciate you expressing your opinions on this matter, but in this case it is something which Admins+ will need to discuss and re-consider.

Have a nice day/night!

Hi Hallow, I really appreciate you weighing in on here even though we already discussed this over discord- I took out my usage of the r-slur if I missed anything please let me know!

What I was trying to get at was I’ve had moments where the staff would tell me to block or ignore another player and use that as a solution. The player ends up not getting any form of punishment- I believe the first time a person uses it they should get a warning because like you said, not everyone understands that it’s offensive. If they go on and say something like “how is it offensive? That’s [redacted].” Then you try to explain why it is offensive. I understand that this might end up not working very well, but I’m not trying to be really harsh here as I am very much aware that some people dont realize what they are saying is offensive.

Now, I know that these changes would have to be discussed by admins, though I’ve alr1eady discussed it with one admin so hopefully this gets looked into soon!

 

[StopDebuffing]

People call it a slur now? Yikes

 

[Hallowqueen]

People call it a slur now? Yikes

I mean, it is a slur. It’s used to demean and belittle a group of people based on one aspect they can’t change.

 

[MutedPianist]

People call it a slur now? Yikes

It has always been a slur.

 

[SirJaustin]

mate its a slur just punish it as hate speech its not like the hate speech punishment it self is taken serious atleast acknowledge that it is a slur bc it is 100% a slur and give it the properpunishment its really fucked up if you would treat this as discrespect yet other slurs get seen as hate speech

 

[Cookie Kat]

mate its a slur just punish it as hate speech its not like the hate speech punishment it self is taken serious atleast acknowledge that it is a slur bc it is 100% a slur and give it the properpunishment its really fucked up if you would treat this as discrespect yet other slurs get seen as hate speech

I agree with you, Dacon responded to a thread @laney posted here- apparently, the r slur has been added to the censor list. This still begs the question of how the staff will punish players who persist to use it going forward. As it stands, I don't believe it's considered hate speech. However, if a staff could confirm that'd be greatly appreciated.

 

[jasper_]

I had to censor in in my thread, but the staff didn’t delete comments of the trolls who used it

 

[Hallowqueen]

I had to censor in in my thread, but the staff didn’t delete comments of the trolls who used it

Hello!

We are definitely keeping an eye on this, as although it is no longer considered hate speech for the time being, it is still not allowed on our platforms.

If you have any concerns, please report players abusing this word and being harmful. We most definitely don’t want players using this as a chance to make other players uncomfortable when expressing concerns about this topic.

Have a nice day/night!