Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr
No. The lesson is to not post stupid stuff like that, period. If you say them verbally around the "right" people that you know, that know you, who understand the context, and have your best interests at heart, you're not going to get in trouble. Even if someone in that group becomes an enemy, it would be your word against theirs. When you release your foolish thoughts into the general public when there are cameras, audio saves &/or can be saved to the computer screen, you are setting yourself up for your reputation to be ruined. Foolish talk around the guys isn't meant to hang around or leave the locker room. To act like that online or where strangers can catch it turns "normal", "harmless" male stupidity into racist, masochistic behavior. Parents should monitor how their children present themselves online because people will see what was done not as how far they've possibly come, but as what they are possibly now.
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I agree to the point. However, teenagers don’t see this as putting stuff out there for the world. Most do not understand the global reach of their expressions. They see it as an avenue to show off to their friends or simply communicate with their friends. At the end of the day, he was still a kid at the time of the tweets. Much like we seal up criminal records for juvieniles i’m willing to give the kid a second chance unless there is still a pattern of behavior that mirrors what was tweeted back then. I don’t know. I didn’t see his twitter account before it was locked.
Regardless, this should be treated as great opportunity for a teaching moment to educate why those words hurt and hopefully bring awareness to negative power and hurt certain words possess. It would be fantastic if Hader chose to lead such an initiative. I’d rather those type of things not be thought at all let alone spoke. It’s more important to me that we educate people as to the power of those words rather than threaten and teach kids to censor themselves for fear of a ruined reputation 10 years later. There is no context where that type of language is okay. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a locker room, with the right people or whatever. If you’re thinking it or saying them anytime that is the problem, not just a tweet. I prefer education over punishment as ignorance and learned behavior usually are the culprits for slurs.
That’s my 2 cents.