My son sent home

My argument is not a strawman. To be a strawman argument I would have to misreprisent your argument and atribute that argument to you. Then refute the misreprisented argument that you never made.

I dont believe I misreprisented your argument. Lets see. You say that what the boy did does not desirve the punishment he was given and it is only over political corectness that is the cause of the overreaction.

All I did was replace one ethnic name for another to see if you still care. And I wonder what the punishment on this board would be if I did the same thing.

 

She didn't call you a strawman, she called your tactic one. It is fair to attack your argument.

A strawman is when you misrepresent your opponent's argument and attack the misrepresentation rather than their actual position.

I'm not convinced that your alternate example qualifies as one though.

edited to add: Oh, I see you already got that. Nevermind.

 

I was re-reading the OP and wanted to get back to it. I really dont see how you are working hard to make sure your son shares Gods love and respect for everyone. I dont see how you are trying to make sure your son is a gentleman.

It seems to me (correct me if I am wrong) that you came here to defend your sons actions. Or at least mitigate them you are not placing full blame on your son instead puting it off on political correctness and the girl was mean to him.

You can put him in any mixture of school you want but when you defend him and shift blame for his actions you are teaching him it is no big deal. Now I dont want to beat up on you but I dont see the consistancy in your statements and actions.

And leaving the race issue aside your son was fighting and yelling at a girl. How is that a gentelman.

I would love to here from the OP and see if maybe your thoughts have changed about this thread or if you are even reading.

 

Now THAT is called "baiting." :laugh:

Thanks for trying to help, Daisy. :flower:

 

No not if I started to call people strawman. If I called people "stupid Jew" what would happen to me. I was referrencing a few posts up.

 

Ditto. We've gone on a lot of rabbit trails without knowing all the facts, IMHO.

 

Guilty. Whats the answer? play along.

Daisy was confused.

 

I'll put it this way, "it ain't pretty."

 

Get over it and move on! Making a big deal out of it will do more damage to your son than anything. It is just a little "bump" in life and a couple of tomorrows it will be gone so put it away from you and stay at that school and just move on. If you take him out of that school, then he won't know how to deal with life and learn from this unpleasent happening in his life. I can tell you as one who has been here a while, it is not the pleasant or good things in life that teach you but it is the bad things that happen to you, such as "chastisment" from the Lord.
It is not the end of the world. This PC is something that is hard to deal with when we really don't mean anything but it just another thing in life, like so many drugs that we have to learn to deal with. peace,

 

Political Correctness run amuck.

Maybe you can explain why it is ok to say "stupid mexican" and not "stupid Jew" and why if I am punished for that here it would not be political correctness.

I will read tomorow. Time to go home, night. :sleeping_2:

 

In this thread it has been posited that a child who makes a two-word racially biased error, presumably in the heat of anger, rightfully deserves a two day suspension and should have been expelled from school. It was further noted that this will help train the lad so that when he becomes an adult he won't be fired for racially biased statements.

The following, presumably prepared, statement was made by an adult. This adult did not receive 2 days suspension, expulsion nor was he fired from his U.S. taxpayer subsidized job. What would the child in question learn when he compares his statement to the statement of this adult? For what cause would the child receive a greater penalty than this adult that should know better?

"The border remains a military zone. We remain a hunted people. Now you think you have a destiny to fulfill in the land that historically has been ours for forty thousand years. And we're a new Mestizo nation. And they want us to discuss civil rights. Civil rights. What law made by white men to oppress all of us of color, female and male. This is our homeland. We cannot - we will not- and we must not be made illegal in our own homeland. We are not immigrants that came from another country to another country. We are migrants, free to travel the length and breadth of the Americas because we belong here. We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It's a matter of time. The explosion is in our population." - Professor Jose Gutierrez, University of Texas at Arlington and Founder of La Raza Unida (The Race)​

Should this child learn that the best way to stay out of trouble is to go to college, become a tenured professor, found a group called the White race and advocate the conquering of Mexico for the people of European ancestory? Is it possible that there is a very real double-standard regarding racism in America?

 

So I should be suspended if I call pinoybaptist an Indian? I don't agree, he should just say he's not an Indian, I apologize and we move on with life. Why should he be offended if he was an Indian?

 

For what it is worth Ms. Belle you have my encouragement. Keep on keepin on and doing your best to train up your child the way he should go.

 

That would have been a very sensible, appropriate resolution. Were you able to suggest it to the principal or student counsellor?

 

In reading this discussion, I hope people will come to realize a few things. First of all, "Hispanic" is not simply a politically correct term for Mexican. Its a more accurate term. If the girl was not a mexican, than to call her one would not be truthful. If somoene was to get nit-picky regarding political correctness, you would hear "latin american." I have know many Hispanic people to feel very insulted at being called Mexican because they were not Mexican. I knew one man that was proud of his heritage from Costa Rica. To him, "mexican" was not only wrong, but insulting that somoene would just lump him in with some other country. I guess that would be the same as someone calling a citizen of the USA a Canadian just because they are from North America. If you were proud of your US citizenship, you might not appreciate being called a Canadian. I've also know people from Mexico to reject the title of "Mexican" because they had become a US citizen. They felt that being called a mexican assumed they were not American. Hispanic is a racial designation, is more general, and in many cases more accurate.

But you are right...name calling is the issue. Being politically correct stems from good things: respect and love. As Christians we should not call people names that show disrespect or hate. Of course, like many things in this world, this can run wild. Choosing ones words for the sake of choosing words is well...silly.

What has me most curious in this discussion is the idea that seems to favor the lowest of standards in the case of a double standard. This is not what we as Christians are called to. In fact, there is a triple standard. There is the standard of the world that seems to be unevenly applied, thus two standards. Our rebellous nature wants to react to this and far too often we see an attempt to make two wrongs equal a right.

Case in point: a new white only scholarship. We know it is wrong to treat people differently soley because of their skin color. We see a double standard applied and decide to champion discrimination as a reaction.

Instead, there is a third standard as well, that of Christ.

 

The demonstration of lowest standards / equivalent example is not only to demonstrate the double standard but to speak against the overreaction of some who would desire that this young man/boy should be expelled from school because of an error based on the principle that when he gets older he will be fired from his job. The reality is, if he gets a certain job and has a certain skin color and champions the destruction of a people of a certain other skin color, then not only will he not lose his job but neither will he be suspended nor expelled.

White only scholarships demonstrate the inequity and unconstitutionality of race based preferences in school scholarships. It is not an effort to champion discrimination but to highlight the perpetration of discrimination.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King Jr.​

 

Sin doesn't do much to show sin to others.

Again, we must aim for the highest of standards.

 

Very simple, because you are playing games.

 

She was wrong for treating him this way and a verbal warning was probably an appropriate response from the teacher. This is life and your son will deal with people like this through out his life. I know you do not want to teach him that useing racial slurs is an appropriate way to handle people like this.

Your entire first paragraph was an excuse for him, was it not.

As it should be.

Wrong, your sons offense was the racial slur. Both kids were calling names. She got a verbal warning becasue her name calling did not involve a racial slur. If your son would have left it at "stupid" or "you are stupid" He would have been given a warning. BUT "stupid Mexican" is a racisem and deserves suspention. Your mitigating his behavor only backs up what he did your punishment becomes ineffective because you refuse to acknowlege what he did.

You miss the point. This is not a case of extream PCism playing cowboys and indians is fine. Talking about reinacting the cival war is fine. Saying "stupid mexican" is not. You are trying to mitigate what he did by blameing it on extream PCism.

I agree, but if I was the principal and heard you defending your sons actions I would still suspend. But If I knew you understood what the offence was an apology would solve it.

Yes, we are. Please square that with yelling racial slurs at other girls in the class.

Either the person who told you that does not know what he/she is talking about or you misunderstood. Ask that person if your son would have yelled "stupid Hispanic" would it have made a difference. It should not make any difference.

Look, I am not saying you are a bad parent or anything like that. I am saying you really misunderstand the offence your son made. You are mitigating it and I think that is a mistake. But it is obvious you care about your son and want to defend him. You can do that but please try to look at the situation with impartal eyes. That is the best for your son right now.