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What would be nice one in a while, is for one of the guys who do something like this to say "fuck me, what I said was really racist and I'm extremely sorry for saying it" rather than try to claim that it wasn't racist.
I dunno. That seems to suggest that the intent of the writer plays absolutely no part in this. It also really worries me that the standard call-out has become "how could a career media professional have been so stupid?" because it completely excuses us from the difficult task of making any judgement on whether the accusation of racism was reasonable. Taken on its own (there may be a history for the conversation) the quote he used seems to me to be a comment the nature of all humans. But now the accusation of racism is taken as a sufficiently serious matter to force someone's resignation. It's a bit like the shitshow around that Dove advert a while back.
ffm-
That seems to suggest that the intent of the writer plays absolutely no part in this.
You can cause harm without meaning to. If I step backwards onto your foot with my massive, sweaty, haven't-cycled-for-5-years bulk, then it doesn't really matter that I didn't intend to crush your dainty little toes into useless floppy pancakes. If you say "fuck me, you've just crushed my toes!" the appropriate response is for me to say "oh shit, sorry, I didn't mean to step on your toes" and then get off your toes.
The wrong thing to do would be for me to continue standing on your toes while explaining to you that I am not, in fact, a toe-crusher, and that toe-crushing never even entered into my head, and people need to be less sensitive about accidental toe-crushing these days because I am definitely not a toe-crusher and you haven't even had your toes crushed anyway.
That would make me look like a dick, and your toes would still hurt.
bothwell
At a guess, it's because humans tend not to think as much as they should and tend to assume the best of themselves when communicating with people.
I.e a non racist privileged white guy may well not consider for a moment that anything they say might be racist.
What would be nice one in a while, is for one of the guys who do something like this to say "fuck me, what I said was really racist and I'm extremely sorry for saying it" rather than try to claim that it wasn't racist.