If you violate the terms of service, why would you expect service?
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Of course you could refuse to fill a neo-Naziâs gas tank! Where did you get the loony idea that you couldnât?
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I wish I could like this ten times.
If the account name is racist then simply mentioning the account name is abusive. Being subjected to racist speech is outside the realm of what a human being who works with the public can reasonably be expected to deal with.
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My view, with the understanding that the act of playing an MMORPG is a privilege specified by contract, not a right upheld by law (most private companies reserve the right to refuse service, allowing for exceptions such as civil or disability rights laws), is that we should remember that we often come off appearing entitled in our claims to have rights to things we have not.
Hypothetically, the playerâs tag clearly violated the game rules, and he summarily explained to the call center rep that he had and would continue to subvert said gameâs rules. As much as I agree with the ethical stance behind her actions, this would be something she should have passed on to her superior, stating âthis is a repeat issue about an offensive gamertagâ. She also should remember that if employed by an âat-will employmentâ company, they can fire her as easily as she could quit. But hey, even if I didnât get fired, I would probably quit anyway if that was their stance.
However, the idea that the tag in itself was not offensive is crap. There is a grammatical difference between HeebHunterSS (a member of the SS who hunts âheebsâ), and say, HeebtheHunterofSS (Heeb, who hunts SS members, in which Heeb acts as a reclaimed word), but even stepping into that territory is risky. Even six-year-olds have a pretty good idea of what is offensive from their observation of the world around them. You canât sell me on the idea that he didnât know what he was doing.
youâre fired
Seeing as a lot of Neonazis aren´t able to correctly draw a swastika, I wouldn´t assume they´d be knowledgeable about such details.
Obvious troll is obvious. Try harder next time.
very true. hatred/bigotry of any kind and intelligence very seldom go hand in hand.
Ah, that makes sense.
[quote=âredesigned, post:16, topic:4638â]
Seems a strange choice for a racist to use in their gamer tag.
[/quote]You donât see the difference between someone dropping n-bombs and its use in rap music? The difference is context and hate.
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[quote=âDavid_Diamante, post:20, topic:4638â]
I canât refuse to fill a neo-naziâs gas tank
[/quote]Itâs a shame you donât understand how the law works.
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Oh, Iâm sure smaller companies have tyrants. Iâm just saying that call centers of that scale do not have âTRICKED YAâ policy that push their employees to snap (outside of grueling roleplaying sessions, but those push on customer service skills, NEVER pushing the buttons of race, gender, or sexuality.)
Every single aspect of a personâs character are tested during regular audits of calls, expecting the agent to not break down under edge cases like talking to Neonazis whose identity is based on murdering Jews is beyond sanity.
Aside: It was always odd how persons who felt secure around âreal Americansâ decided to spill their bile to another âtrue Americanâ who didnât sound âblackâ or âMexicanâ enough to set off their filter.
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Your choice of which words to censor tells me that the comparison isnât apt.
Unionizing an unskilled service job that doesnât require a local presences is a pretty surefire way to convince a company to not have call centers in the US. It is a minor miracle than any still exist when there is a country with nearly as many English speakers as the US but who will work at a fraction of the wage.
And honestly, the employee handled it wrong. The correct response was to say âcan you please hold?â, and kicking it to whoever bans accounts for racist names (which Microsoft does do). Personally, I am okay with having channels and policies to deal with racist douche bags. I donât want people to have live at the whim of a call center employees sense of morality. If the name had been AwesomeGaymer, and the call center person had felt morally offended, would it be okay for them to exercise their moral autonomy and hang up?
Microsoft has a policy. This was against the policy. Kick it up the chain.
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Ummmm. Maybe read my comments a little more carefully. 
Did you watch Deon Coleâs Black Box this week? He had a hilarious bit about this very point.
http://www.eurthisnthat.com/2013/07/08/jokey-joke-deon-cole-has-problems-with-cnns-panel-for-n-word-discussion-video/
BUTâŚgirardâs explanation did clear things up for me, which is what it was intended forâŚso the point was made and well taken.
Definitely! I think my comment was toward the pedantic end of the scale,
but it felt worth pointing out none the less.
I reread that post. Neo-nazis calling someone âa Jewâ or âHeebâ has nothing to do with reclaiming a positive identity from the hate of the past.
Heeb magazine is one thing. âHeeb killerâ is something entirely different. Thereâs no delicious irony or discrepancy between the two. Context is all.
Thatâs a cute observation, but wrong. Iâm not saying that the two words are equally harmful or taboo - itâs pretty clear that thatâs not the comparison Iâm making.
My analogy is specifically noting that simply pointing out âwell they use it in a positive wayâ doesnât magically make a slur not a slur. Both are slurs that have been reappropriated by the targeted group to be used in an empowering way, but which still function as negative slurs when members of traditionally powerful groups use them as epithets against the targeted group.
The fact that the n-word is a more harmful word than âheebâ doesnât really enter into it, and it seems like youâre deliberately misreading what I was saying to make a quippy little rejoinder.
As for why one word is worth censoring and the other isnât:
In the States the N-word is without question the most toxic, baggage-laden, hate-filled word we have around (the C-word probably runs a close second). Iâm not going to spell it out. Our history with respect to treatment of black Americans is significantly more bleak and unresolved than the treatment of Jews in our countryâs history. I imagine to a perspective from Europe, where slavery was less pervasive and ended earlier, where there is a lower percentage of citizens of African descent, and where anti-semitism has historically been more pervasive, it may seem strange to be more touchy about black-white race relations than goy-jew relations, but honestly, over here, race relations is basically our countryâs largest, most open, suppurating social wound.
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