Well, speaking as a person brought here looking to see if there has been any Word on the matter by He who is Tom, I must say that I am left with about the same feelings now that I had when I started looking into this.
Speaking as a Caucasian of mongolian decent (although, who isn't?) who is RPing a Mongolian of mixed blood (although, who, wait, I did that joke...), I must say that if this was me dealing with it in character, I might have some pointed words with our realm's diplomat.
That said, this IS a SMA continent, racism was historically prevalent (So is syphilis the French Disease? Turkish? Spanish? Anyone want to claim this for their country and/or race? How about a rousing discussion about Blood Libel?), and the phrasing was open enough to be debatable as to who was being racist IMO.
It's not something I would do, I think, but in the context of the rule and the environment, I don't think slapping Kas for this is fair. Thinkng less of Kas for it? Sure. Less of Kas's player? Fine. But punishment based on no actual breach of BM's laws or the guidelines for messaging (where racism is not really referenced and no swear words were used) is bluntly unfair.
+1
Now this is getting ridiculous. So, I can have a character that endorses and enjoys war, is misogynist, thinks that commoners are scum, rapes the wives and daughters of his fallen enemies and manifests openly his intention of hanging every single man, woman and kid from an IC realm, some of those things even supported by his religion, and it's perfectly fine, but then a SLIGHT IMPLICATION of racism lights the rage of the BM community? How come that religious zealotry, war lauding, genocide, women abuse and discrimination and the one based on the social class of characters is OK, but the one regarding their origin is not?
Either we allow everything that comes with the period we are playing, or we forbid everything that "might be offensive for some random collective". If we do the latter, please notify me to start writing letters that only verse about peace and flowers, because it's the only thing that we'll all find acceptable. Oh, wait, flowers should be censored too: my sister is allergic, and I don't want her reading such horrible things in an ONLINE GAME THAT WE'RE SUPPOSED TO PLAY AS IF WE WERE FRIENDS.
Sheesh, I hate hipocrisy, as much if not even more than racism itself. Don't be so squeamish, guys. Seriously.
