Would/should you be offended if you overheard a friend or coworker with using a racial slur (even if it wasn't directed towards your race)?
by 
YupYup84
ANSWERS: 10
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I'd m ind my own business if they weren't talking about me!
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I always feel extremely comfortable around one "friend" (At the time, I had no friends and she was closest to being considered a "friend") But she would constantly belittle almost everyone for thier appearance and not just for race. One particular example is when I was apart of the theater group in the next town over, which was not the best neighborhood but I enjoyed being apart of that group and I had made a lot of different people from all different backgrounds. While we were on the way to the theater, she'd point out different people and state because their race (african american) that they were drug dealers and pointing at every house as a crack house. I felt extremely uncomfortable and offended because I know people in those neighborhoods and while they may not have all the amenities that the people in my town generally have, I know that they are very warm and welcoming, even moreso than the people I know in my town.
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I would remember that I don't need to be around people like that outside the office or in the office. I would rather be by myself then to hang with people who thought it was ok to do that.
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Yes, I'd be offended, and I'd confront them about it. Bigotry affects everyone. EDIT: I had to Google to find this poem: "First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." -- By Pastor Martin Neumueller, written in Dachau concentration camp in 1944.
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Most certainly. It would be very unpleasant to know that a coworker was a bigot.
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I do not like racial slurs... period. I do not associate with people who make them unless I am forced to do so in a work environment or otherwise cannot escape them. If I am forced to associate with them it is as minimally as possible. I do not confront them because, firstly, in a work environment that can get me fired, secondly, they want a rise. Ok, if it is a racial slur against myself, I sometimes cannot control myself and sometimes do confront and will walk off the job.
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Racial slurs are wrong.....period. I would and have been offended.
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It really aggravates me to hear people use slurs of that nature...and some use them so freely.
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My ex-fiance came home from a hobby shop one day fuming that he'd been cheated over some ridiculous thing. As he's bitching and ranting he says, "Man, that guy really jewed me!" I cut him off right there and told him, "Don't you EVER use that word in that context in my presence again," in my best imitation of my mother's 'I'm a bitch so don't make me kill you' voice. That just made me SO angry. I try not to even use the word "gyp", as in "That movie sucked and the tickets ran us $10 each. What a gyp!" because the origin of that word was the belief that Gypsies (properly called Romani, anyway) were cheaters and thieves. So yes, you should and I would be offended if someone made a joke about ANY race in my presence. Anyhow, my blood is so mixed up they probably *would* be talking about me whether they knew it or not. ^_^
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Has anyone thought that it might depend on how it was being used? You may have only heard part of the conversation, so don't be too quick to judge. However if you're completely sure they were being derrogatory to someone of another race, then you are completely justified to be offended.
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