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Originally posted by pisher:

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You know full well Shonda Rhimes didn't fire him, since the two of them are on the same level mentally.

Wow, no way THAT could be interpreted as offensive by any minority group. Truly you are a master of PR, Riff Rafferty.

As always, pisher, you offer such great pearls of wisdom. Before you came along, I never knew criticizing somebody's mentality level equated to a racial slur. Thank you for enlightening me.

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And I tend to interpret this as Rhimes feeling like she needed to come up with a reason for Burke not to be around the following season, just in case he wasn't.

I interpret it as what it is. Too little, too late. Letting him go when it became "convenient" to the show sent a worse message than bringing him back would have.

And the (actual) slur was just a drop in the bucket when you throw physical violence into the mix. Choking a co-worker would have gotten him fired on the spot from pretty much every other job in the world. And yet, Ms. Rhimes seemed hardly phased when Washington did that, she lied to cover up that he actually said the word, she laughed when he repeated the word live on national television, and what's the one thing she chooses to actually be upset about? When fans suggested that they replace him with another black actor. Yeah, Shonda, because that's something that's never been done with white actors. Not with Dick York or Alice Pearce or Lecy Goranson or Philip Bruns or Fairuza Balk or Lisa Robin Kelly or a hundred other white actors on TV.

She's an idiot plain and simple, she proved it to the world this year, and I can't wait for her ABC whorefest to crash and burn.

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Originally posted by mushu_jj:
X, I don't want to start a war here, but he apologized, he did oodles of things to state he was sorry.....

Yes - oodles of things such as going on a TV interview after an awards show and stating that "he did not call TR a F####".
Which later TR let people know that wasn't even true, but he again said the offensive word....at that point, his firing should have taken place, however, ABC must have wanted to find a way to write him off so they used the whole rehab BS to milk this on for awhile and grab a few more show headlines.

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As always, pisher, you offer such great pearls of wisdom. Before you came along, I never knew criticizing somebody's mentality level equated to a racial slur. Thank you for enlightening me.

You give me too much credit. All I did was embarrass you, by showing what a hypocrite you are. As your spoiled wounded rantings clearly prove.

quote:

Originally posted by pisher:

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As always, pisher, you offer such great pearls of wisdom. Before you came along, I never knew criticizing somebody's mentality level equated to a racial slur. Thank you for enlightening me.

You give me too much credit. All I did was embarrass you, by showing what a hypocrite you are. As your spoiled wounded rantings clearly prove.

Nope, still not a racial slur. Keep trying. I'm sure eventually you'll find one.

Mommy told me something
A little kid should know
It's all about the devil
And I've learned to hate him so
She said he causes trouble
When you let him in the room,
He will never ever leave you
If your heart is filled with gloom


So let the sun shine in
Face it with a grin
Smilers never lose
And frowners never win
So let the sun shine in
Face it with a grin
Open up your heart and let the sun shine in


When you are unhappy
The devil wears a grin
But oh, he starts to running
When the light comes pouring in
I know he'll be unhappy
'Cause I'll never wear a frown
Maybe if we keep on smiling
He'll get tired of hanging 'round.


If I forget to say my prayers
The devil jumps with glee
But he feels so awful awful
When he sees me on my knees
So if you're full of trouble
And you never seem to win
Just open up your heart and let the sun shine in


So let the sun shine in
Face it with a grin
Smilers never lose
And frowners never win
So let the sun shine in
Face it with a grin
Open up your heart
And let the sun shine in

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Nope, still not a racial slur. Keep trying. I'm sure eventually you'll find one.

No, you don't get it--I have no way of knowing if you meant your remark as a racial slur. The point is, in the extremely improbable event of you being in the public eye, talking about how two people who happen to both be black are on 'the same mental level' would get you in every bit as much trouble as Washington's remarks--probably more.

Now are you actually too dense to understand this?

Very few people who get in trouble for making this type of remark actually consciously set out to be bigots. It just--comes out. And that's exactly what I think happened here. But I could be wrong. And Washington might not actually be such a homophobe he has been made out to be, but he sure put his foot in it, all the same. I'm not going to defend him. He's got press agents for that.

And you don't, but don't worry, RR. Nobody outside this forum will ever notice what you say. Hell, we barely notice.

I am actually surprised. If you want to fire someone, do it immediately after the action happened, not after the guy apologizes, the hurt party works with the guy for another 3-4 months, and the guy does his job.

I think firing him now over something that happened months ago is not a very good move.

quote:

Originally posted by pisher:
No, you don't get it--I have no way of knowing if you meant your remark as a racial slur. The point is, in the extremely improbable event of you being in the public eye, talking about how two people who happen to both be black are on 'the same mental level' would get you in every bit as much trouble as Washington's remarks--probably more.

Absolutely. Our society is nothing if not offensive in its militant quest for PC unoffensiveness. What do you expect when people get offended when you recommend replacing an actor of one color with another actor of the same color? (I guess people should have asked her to replace Washington with Carrot Top.) But your analogy (or whatever you want to call it) fails for 3 simple reasons:

1. I'm not in the public eye.

2. I'm not in the public eye.

3. I'm not in the public eye.

Great, glad we understand.

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Very few people who get in trouble for making this type of remark actually consciously set out to be bigots. It just--comes out. And that's exactly what I think happened here. But I could be wrong. And Washington might not actually be such a homophobe he has been made out to be, but he sure put his foot in it, all the same. I'm not going to defend him. He's got press agents for that.

The neat thing about your addle-brained theorizing here is that a comment that can be taken out of context or in one of two ways can easily be put back into context and explained that it should have been taken another way. It's kind of hard to do either of those two things regarding what Washington said. What was he going to say? "Oh, I was misquoted?" "I was really asking for a cigarette?" "Where I come from, that's a term of endearment?"

I repeat, Shonda and Isaiah have demonstrated they are on the same mentality level. Mentality levels are colorless. Theoretically, Shonda and Isaiah could be on different mentality levels. Theoretically, Shonda and Katherine Heigl could be on the same mentality level. If you don't understand this, then you're the one who's too dense.

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And you don't, but don't worry, RR. Nobody outside this forum will ever notice what you say. Hell, we barely notice.

That's good. Some of us try to blend into the background and not cause too much of a scene. Others? Are attention whores with a "ME! ME! ME! LOOK AT ME!!!!" philosophy. Thank the Lord I'm not one of those.

You know, it's just possible that the ruckus over his remarks isn't their only reason, or even their primary reason for firing him. Maybe they just want to reshuffle the cast a bit, and this is a convenient excuse.

If Washington were perceived to be a major ratings-getter for the show, he would have been kept on. As matters stand, there's not much more they can do with the character, anyway.

I wish they'd fire Knight too--George has become a blustering bore, and I don't CARE who he chooses--he doesn't deserve Callie or Izzie. And that's not to say they've been such prizes lately, either.

Actually, fire everybody but Oh, West, & Pickens.

I'm sure they've ALL said something offensive at some point in their lives.

Hasn't everyone?

Better late than never.

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Originally posted by Milcus:
I am actually surprised. If you want to fire someone, do it immediately after the action happened, not after the guy apologizes, the hurt party works with the guy for another 3-4 months, and the guy does his job.

I think firing him now over something that happened months ago is not a very good move.

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Absolutely. Our society is nothing if not offensive in its militant quest for PC unoffensiveness.

Wow, talk about being hypersensitive--you're offended by other people being offended.

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What do you expect when people get offended when you recommend replacing an actor of one color with another actor of the same color?

Oh RR. You didn't do that, did you?

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(I guess people should have asked her to replace Washington with Carrot Top.)

No, they'd replace KNIGHT with Carrot Top.

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But your analogy (or whatever you want to call it)

I'd call it a fairly commonplace observation that anyone with a brain would have to say was perfectly fair and rather obvious.

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1. I'm not in the public eye.

2. I'm not in the public eye.

3. I'm not in the public eye.

And 4. Didn't I just say you were not in the public eye? Was it really necessary for anyone to say this?

Kiddo, since you know nothing about history, let me try to explain this.

When a bigot wants to say something offensive about gay people, he says they're immoral degenerates with an unnatural lifestyle.

When a bigot wants to say something offensive about black people, he talks about their 'mental level'.

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The neat thing about your addle-brained theorizing here is that a comment that can be taken out of context or in one of two ways can easily be put back into context and explained that it should have been taken another way. It's kind of hard to do either of those two things regarding what Washington said. What was he going to say? "Oh, I was misquoted?" "I was really asking for a cigarette?" "Where I come from, that's a term of endearment?"

I believe he said he WAS misquoted in several respects. And apparently Knight agreed. But again, it's a matter of perception. Obviously you might not have meant anything offensive. But Washington obviously never set out to offend the entire gay community, either. He was pissed off at one particular gay person, and he said something unfortunate. And you're pissed off at two African American people, and you said something equally unfortunate. You can say you didn't mean it that way. And in fact, that's exactly what Washington says. You two have a lot in common. I mean, excluding that public eye thingy.

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I repeat, Shonda and Isaiah have demonstrated they are on the same mentality level.

And a damn good thing you're such a nobody, too. Saves you all kinds of trouble. Take my advice, RR--never get famous. I mean, if the option ever arises. Like I dunno, you could win the lottery or something.

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Mentality levels are colorless.

I agree, of course. But no racist would. And people are going to respond to what a remark SOUNDS like, in the context of the type of bigotry they have experienced in the past. And with black people, that largely consists of people calling them stupid and ignorant.

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Theoretically, Shonda and Isaiah could be on different mentality levels.

You know, it's really freaky how you call them by their first names while talking about their 'mentality levels'.

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Theoretically, Shonda and Katherine Heigl could be on the same mentality level. If you don't understand this, then you're the one who's too dense.

If you don't understand that people are reading this and shaking their heads in disbelief, you're BEYOND dense, RR. I mean, you could take sensitivity lessons from Steve Carell's character in "The Office".

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That's good. Some of us try to blend into the background and not cause too much of a scene. Others? Are attention whores with a "ME! ME! ME! LOOK AT ME!!!!" philosophy. Thank the Lord I'm not one of those.

Are you sure you're not actually a character from "The Office"?

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Originally posted by pisher:
I believe he said he WAS misquoted in several respects. And apparently Knight agreed. But again, it's a matter of perception. Obviously you might not have meant anything offensive. But Washington obviously never set out to offend the entire gay community, either. He was pissed off at one particular gay person, and he said something unfortunate. And you're pissed off at two African American people, and you said something equally unfortunate.

I didn't use the "N" word to describe them. I'm not pissed off because they are African-American. End of story.

P.S. You really are a troll, aren't you? I had my doubts, but I guess I've "seen the light." Well, just as long as you've opened my eyes to something, you've done your part.

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I didn't use the "N" word to describe them. I'm not pissed off because they are African-American. End of story.

You're actually saying that if you don't use a particular word you can't be accused of making an insensitive remark? As I recall, Imus didn't use the 'N' word either--unlesss you mean "Nappy". Of course, he combined it with the "H" word.

You say that Rhimes and Washington being black has nothing to do with your remark. Okay. Washington says he doesn't hate gay people. He used a word that people use all the time to refer to people they're pissed off at, even if they know those people aren't gay. Ann Coulter used that word to refer to John Edwards, and she didn't get fired from didley-squat, and none of the Republican candidates for President in the room with her so much as batted an eye. Double-standard much?

Obviously you don't need to be fired from anything, but doesn't it bother you at all that if a black person read your remarks, he or she might be very offended and hurt?

And don't give me that line about how people are too-easily offended these days--you're a poster boy for that problem. Look at my first post on this thread--if I hadn't hit a nerve, would you really have gone so ballistic?

You don't have to call someone a certain name to be offensive. What you said WAS offensive. But I wasn't offended. I was amused, because you were engaging in the very type of behavior you were attacking. Whether you knew it or not. And I fully believe you may not have known it. Because you're obviously not very bright. I'm tempted to employ the "S" word, in fact. Or maybe even the "M" word.

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P.S. You really are a troll, aren't you?

Ah--The "T" word. I hear it everytime I win an argument online.

Just to make it a little easier for you, RR--your remarks in italics, mine in bold--

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You know full well Shonda Rhimes didn't fire him, since the two of them are on the same level mentally.

Wow, no way THAT could be interpreted as offensive by any minority group. Truly you are a master of PR, Riff Rafferty.

And you think OTHER people get offended too easily? The only name I called you was the one you go by here.