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Original poster

“Racism” towards the Irish on here

6 replies

Giantbanger · 30/10/2018 10:09

Can we please talk about it and can you please get your mods some training.

There was a thread that stood from yesterday. The op was goady and people were reporting the fuck out of it from yesterday.

It went this morning because the op was previously banned for being goady. No surprises there then.

But it contained a post from a member of MNHQ that really bothered me and I would like to discuss.

Add message | Report | Message poster EstherMumsnet (MNHQ) Mon 29-Oct-18 19:43:38
Hello!
Thanks for all the reports on this one. We'd like to leave this up as it's a pretty interesting discussion - one for the colonial/post colonial literature experts perhaps (yes - we know there's an argument over whether Irish literature counts as such!) - so please keep to the spirit of the site when discussing this and make your points politely. Thanks

So if there’s a “racist” thread about the Irish, it is an interesting discussion and the Irish need to be polite when telling racists they are racists.

(And Yes. I know in the dictionary definition Irish isn’t a race. It’s a subset ethnicity of Caucasian but the term is used more broadly in general use than the dictionary definition.)

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MNHQ

LilyMumsnet · 30/10/2018 22:17

Hi all,

We're just posting to say we hear you and this thread has been seen.

It's not much of an excuse, but we've been rushed off our feet for the past couple of days and that sometimes means we don't get to things as quickly as we'd perhaps like (like this thread).

A more detailed response from a senior MNHQer will be posted - just wanted to assure you all that we are listening and will be taking a closer look.

MNHQ

MyGhoulMumsnet · 31/10/2018 07:48

Hi all, and apologies for the late response - we've been a bit overrun and it's all hands on deck here.

We allowed the thread to run because people were addressing the points made by the OP in good faith. Initially, there was a strong discussion about Irish literature, identity and culture, and the importance of historical context.

We received some reports asking us to take a look, and posted on the thread to say that it was an interesting discussion and requested that contributors made their points politely.

MNHQ's comment was a response to the discussion as it stood at the halfway point of the thread - it was intended to draw attention to the points being made about Irish writing being considered through the lens of colonial/post colonial literature (and it certainly wasn't meant to imply that Irish literature doesn't count as literature).

We took down the thread because we received more reports that it had gone sour - we also discovered that the OP probably wasn't posting in good faith, and that their contributions were posted in order to be inflammatory.

It is never our intention to minimise racism or prejudice. We understand that many of you were offended by the tone of the discussion and we could have taken it down sooner. We’ve learnt from this and we’ll try to move faster in future.

If you see any post which breaks the talk guidelines then please report it and we'll take a look.

MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 02/11/2018 14:06

Hi all, apologies - we're definitely responding today. We'll post on the thread soon. Thanks for bearing with us so far.

MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 02/11/2018 14:24

Hello all,

Thank you all for posting here and sharing your thoughts.

We do take your point on ‘beyond the pale’, but there seems to be a general consensus among etymology types that it’s an idiom which has long evolved from its offensive historical context. Our approach is based on whether a term is currently used in an ordinary descriptive sense about a group of people and intended pejoratively. We don’t feel that is the case here.

We agree - and it's part of our Talk Guidelines - that we generally should delete posts which are deliberately designed to inflame - sometimes, as in this case, it takes a little time to establish that, however but we'll certainly think about (and do think about) how, as a moderation team, we can speed up our response time

The last thing we want is our Irish members (of which there are many) to feel unwelcome. Please do report any posts which you think are either deliberately inflammatory or racist or both and we promise to take a look at every report that comes in and to deal with them as speedily as possible.

MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 02/11/2018 16:13

Hi again. Please bear with us - we've said upthread that we're working to improve things and that we're listening. The conversations continue at MNHQ and we're more than happy to take on board your feedback.

MNHQ

MichaelMumsnet · 05/11/2018 13:59

Hi all and thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it.

As it's become clear that having this particular phrase in the guidelines was upsetting a fair few of you, we've updated the Talk guidelines to say,

'It's not our policy to delete swearwords (we're all adults, after all) but we do draw the line at obscenity, racist, ageist, disablist, homophobic or transphobic language, and wording that is truly awful.'

Thanks,
MNHQ

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