[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by BLACKBURN RAVER

ASSUMPTIONS eh !!!

so why do you assume i am a racist just because i left negative karma ...

you know some people really pi$$ me off with their im better than you attitude !!!! ....

my FINAL say on this matter ta ta

I'm not better than anyone else and I certainly don't assume that I am. In fact I know that I fall far short of being the sort of person I'd like to be and I also know there are people on here far cleverer than me and who are far better at explaining things than I am.

However, you asked a question and so I shall try to answer it, as best I can.

Why did I assume that the person who left Mani negative karma was racist? Well, it was because they (which turned out to be you) assumed a racist slur in Mani's post where non was intended, saw an innocent post as a racist insult, saw a helpful AccyWebber as an anti-Christian aggressor. That seemed pretty racist to me in much the same way as people who accuse others of being racist when they say "A white teenager." or "An Asian teenager". There is nothing racist at all in describing the ethnic origins of someone. Racism comes into it when one race is deemed to be inferior or superior to another. The distinction is made in the mind of the beholder, therefore if a person sees 'racism' where none was intended and where none is apparent to the majority then the distinction of inferiority or superiority (ie racism) is in the eyes of the beholder, who is therefore the only actual racist in the equation.

I know I haven't explained that as clearly as I would have liked to do but it's difficult. I'm sure somebody else could make a better job of it than me.

I don't know if you can remember but some time ago there was a thread on here about racism and I made a post along the lines of the fact that I have friends of different races and have to stop and actively think about it before I could think what races my friends are because to me first and foremost they are all just human beings. Somebody pounced on that and accused me of being racist and of having to remind myself that black people are human!

Mani was helping us Christmas celebrating type people by finding links to some of the presents that people found hard to track down. He referred to 'you people and your Crimbo' in much the same way as I could refer to 'you Stanley supporters and your football' - no racism in the latter but racism was assumed in the former because Mani is Asian and Muslim. If he had been white and Pagan would the post have been racist? It is also worth remembering that Christianity is a religion, not a race and that Christians come from all racial backgrounds, including Asian - and the same goes for Islam. There are white Anglo-Saxon Muslims too.