Unnecessary Racist Slur

[Mayhem]

The problem isn't just the "slant-eyes". It's the whole of it: short, slanted eyes, yellow skin—that means he's lazy.

your words makes no sense.

HOW?

short + slanted eyes + yellow skin = lazy

HOW?

[Anaris]

your words makes no sense.

HOW?

short + slanted eyes + yellow skin = lazy

HOW?

That's what your message said. I was merely summarizing.

[Mayhem]

I have several sources from where I could say

Short, slanted eyes and yellowish skin are different from asian.

For the exemple, in Tolkien books there a race called Sun Elves that just is like that(He wrote as an extention for the Silmarilion).

By the way, I did not say he was born yellow, he could have gotten a disease and become yellow.

There are so many excuses for this case and only one option about racism, this is not more a logical matter, this is a matter of a imature player that want to harm my in game play by false accusation.

[Vita`]

For what its worth, Kas' character was questioned if they mean 'jaundiced and had cataracts' to which Kas replied he was 'fine' and 'had a different set of eyes'. I have nothing against you, nor care about harming your game play (actually the contrary), so please quit insisting you know my mind better than I. I'll fully admit I should've approached you first, but from my perspective, I saw a line that was quite unfriendly to a segment of an international game and which you insisted on carrying after you were given an opportunity to provide an alternative explanation. If I were so immature and wanted to harm your game play with false accusations, I wouldn't have posted your defense when you sent it to me OOCly. The only matter I care about here is making it clear that its not okay to insult entire groups of players in a friendly game.

[Bael]

Summary:	Unnecessary Racist Slur
Violation:	Not insulting/being courteous to the global playerbase
World:	Dwilight
Complainer:	Ethan Lee Vita
About:	Kas

I must apologize, was a lack of discipline from my courtier to not teach my new scriba my previous adresses properly, somehow I found him to be lazy, very short with slanted eyes and a yellowish skin, every time I passed by him I thought he was asleep because I could not see his eyes opened, but since I found this discrepancy better to change.

I must admit, my take on this message is somewhat different to those that have been expressed thus far. It wasn't specifically the laziness, slanted eyes, shortness or yellowish skin that I found disturbing. It was the joke that was made regarding them, or specifically the eyes. That is, because he has slanted eyes, I couldn't tell whether he was awake or not (lol), and so I thought he was lazy.

I get the feeling the above is a stock racial joke about (the chinese), although I haven't had that much contact with asians of eastern persuasion.

Thank you for the answer regarding the Titan punishment, it did look a bit odd coming at the same time as this one (and given that I share a realm with one of his characters).

[Geronus]

Just because you think this is cut and dry doesn't make it so. You your self said don't be easily offended, which is what everyone who is getting pissed about someone who has iffy english skills didn't know that a description of a race to by him was considered racist by other people. Publish a list of terms that are unacceptable or quit complaining that people are using obviously racist terms when it isn't obvious to several members of this thread and likely many more IG. People shouldn't be required to look up every word they type in urbandictionary.com to make sure some !@#$%^& isn't using it to discriminate against people when as stated, their are many different cultures interacting in this game thus its not going to be obvious that words that actually describe people is seen as racist to others.

We will never publish any specific list of terms that are unacceptable. The yardstick is and remains whether or not someone else considers what you said to be offensive. If so, that person should contact you with their concerns and then you should attempt to work it out with them. If the issue cannot be resolved by direct discussions between the two parties, it can be brought here by the offended party.

This case skipped the step where the players attempt to work it out themselves. We will rule on it, but a warning is likely what to expect given that no one made any attempt to contact Kas with their concerns prior to coming here (and thereby gave him no chance to explain himself or otherwise make amends), combined with the other extenuating factors. That said, enough people viewed the comment as offensive that I think it's justified to issue a warning.

[Geronus]

All discussion of the Titan cases and decisions has been moved to the Questions & Answers board here:

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,4299.0.html

Please do not discuss the Titan cases any further in this thread and stick to the topic at hand.

[Bael]

All discussion of the Titan cases and decisions has been moved to the Questions & Answers board here:

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,4299.0.html

Please do not discuss the Titan cases any further in this thread and stick to the topic at hand.

Thanks, I was wondering whether that might be better...

[Penchant]

We will never publish any specific list of terms that are unacceptable. The yardstick is and remains whether or not someone else considers what you said to be offensive. If so, that person should contact you with their concerns and then you should attempt to work it out with them. If the issue cannot be resolved by direct discussions between the two parties, it can be brought here by the offended party.

This case skipped the step where the players attempt to work it out themselves. We will rule on it, but a warning is likely what to expect given that no one made any attempt to contact Kas with their concerns prior to coming here (and thereby gave him no chance to explain himself or otherwise make amends), combined with the other extenuating factors. That said, enough people viewed the comment as offensive that I think it's justified to issue a warning.

A stipulation of a if someone tells you they find it offensive might be valid, but its hardly fair to say people can't say offensive things, have no idea that what they said was offensive, then get punished for being offensive. If someone said I am offended by what you said and he kept using it, sure its fair to punish him because thats not playing with friends but do you get pissed at friends because they said something offensive out of ignorance? That doesn't seem like you are playing with friends when acting like that either.

[Geronus]

A stipulation of a if someone tells you they find it offensive might be valid, but its hardly fair to say people can't say offensive things, have no idea that what they said was offensive, then get punished for being offensive. If someone said I am offended by what you said and he kept using it, sure its fair to punish him because thats not playing with friends but do you get pissed at friends because they said something offensive out of ignorance? That doesn't seem like you are playing with friends when acting like that either.

I agree with you, which is why I have said, over and over again, that as the offended party your first course of action should always be to take it up directly with the person who offended you and make an attempt to work it out. I suppose that won't stop people from coming here first anyway on occasion, but unless the offense is fairly spectacular I expect our reaction will generally be to do nothing more than issue a warning, if in fact we do anything at all. If such occurrences became commonplace, I would probably advocate putting in place a policy of simply rejecting any case where no effort had been made to discuss the matter with the offender.

[Geronus]

A verdict has been reached, and a warning was given for a first offence. For anyone who desires to cite this case in the future, the final verdict was:

"Slanted eyes" is commonly used as a disparaging term for a person of East Asian birth or descent and such recognizably offensive racial slang has no place in BattleMaster. The defence of roleplay is not accepted and players are reminded that roleplays are not a shield for real world ethnic slurs, intended or otherwise. It is fine to offend characters but not players. The response to this thread indicates that a number of players did find this language to be questionable beyond the original complainer.

In general, offensive language or terminology of any sort falls under the Fair Play clause of the Social Contract:  Play as you would a board game with good friends. Good friends respect each other's sensibilities. If you as a player find something a character or player says offensive, the first thing you should do is contact the other player directly and politely let them know you were offended and why and ask them to not do it again. Please do not open a Magistrate case without attempting to privately work out your differences with the other player first! If the other player continues with their offensive behavior after attempts to resolve the issue privately, you may then open a Magistrate case.

Magistrates voted 5-1 in favor of the guilty verdict.