[ale] OT: Security code on Credit/Debit cards revisited

[Michael B. Trausch]

On 03/23/2010 06:27 PM, Richard Bronosky wrote:
> His remark made no indication that he believes in the genetic
> inferiority of any race. The word racist has a particularly nasty
> meaning and it is important for society that it not be diluted by
> misuse. Unfortunately the media has made it almost entirely ambiguous.

Yes, the definition of the word is thus:

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=racist

"Adjective

S: (adj) racist (based on racial intolerance) "racist remarks"
S: (adj) racist, antiblack, anti-Semite (discriminatory especially on 
the basis of race or religion)"

The comment which you appear to have overlooked is thus, from the email 
at 15:58 today, from Scott Castaline:  "We pay cash at restaurants 
especially ones of certain nationalities."

Not only is such a comment racist---the statement makes very explicit 
that only certain types of people (exactly who is left to be undefined, 
but the category of discrimination is quite clear) can be trusted with a 
card, and all others get cash.

Now, are there people I will give cash to instead of my card?  Sure. 
But it doesn't matter what their perceived nationality is.  What matters 
is whether the card leaves my sight or not, whether or not their system 
is a standard point of sale system or not, and other similar pieces of 
information which give me the ability to try to determine whether or not 
there is a terribly high probability that the person running my card is 
going to rip the numbers off of it.  Physical attributes of the person 
taking my card or the cash don't matter.

The statement to which I am referring here---surely, I need not waste 
the bandwidth to quote it thrice---is extremely racist, and is therefore 
wholly inappropriate.  I certainly hope that you've simply misunderstood 
what I was referring to, and are not defending it.  That would also be 
wholly inappropriate in this forum, or any other forum that isn't 
dedicated to the purpose of being so readily intolerant.

I suggest this thread die right here.

	--- Mike

-- 
Michael B. Trausch                                    ☎ (404) 492-6475