When I see a thread titled "Muzza's" you just know within you that it spells flame war - it begins as a harmless discussion on the meaning of the term Muzza, but considering it has racial connotations, its merely a matter of time before discussion alters its course. This certainly has been the case with this thread, now its been split and I'm thinking how much constructive discussion it will promote. I'm thinking it will just result in a witch hunt against Sleaze, as it already has begun. I don't agree with him and I believe it was quite a narrow minded statement to make and I'm a firm believer that people should be held accountable for their words. As a moderator it would be my duty to intercede and prevent it from resulting into such a witch hunt - I considered closing the thread "Muzza's" last nite, but thought I'd leave it a bit longer and see how it developed - this morning I found that it had been split in order to discuss racism.
I understand that this is an issue in itself and worthy of a discussion - personally I would have started a completely new thread and provided a general discussion point. Splitting the other thread at the virtual point of Sleaze's comment doesn't present this as such, but rather a topic of his statement. Despite not agreeing with him, I still think it presents unfair singling out of someone rather than putting foward a general subject for discussion. I'm sure without a doubt that it wasn't 1234's intention for it be like this
This is a difficult subject to discuss objectively without the imput of emotions and hence for this reason I elect to stay out of it, due to my past dealings with racism - its a no win situation and I've just come to accept differing opinions.
In an effort to divert discussion away from Sleaze and into a more general discussion I present the following..
Do you think that racism is present within Australia and do you have any personal experiences that might suggest either way?
Please keep in mind that we are the product of our enviroment and people from different areas will have differing ideas - no one's asking you to agree with anyone, but please respect the view of others, no matter what side of the fence they sit on. I trust the maturity of bluelight will shine through and some good discussion will be the product.
thank you