Podcasts Ban

applehunter

Hi,

I was permanently banned from the Podcasts forum on Sunday.

The ban was in relation to a topic about blacks in America on Eamon Dunphy's podcast. I raised the issue of disproportionate level of crime committed by blacks in crime statistics and was accused of being racist.

See below the post that was deemed offensive.



The moderator jaykhunter called this thinly veiled racism. I appealed to him in relation to the ban but I did not get a reply.

It should be permitted to speak about race issues without being branded a racist and banned. It was other posters that inferred that I felt that blacks had a predisposition to crime. I only pointed to statistics.

Thank you
applehunter

Tokyo

Good afternoon applehunter,

as the first step in this process is to try to resolve the issue with the mod in question, please reach out to them again to try to do so. If you still can't come to any resolution, we will continue the process here.

applehunter

Hi Tokyo,

I have appealed my ban to the podcasts mod (jaykhunter) and resent my appeal on Friday. I have received no reply so far.

applehunter

applehunter

Hi,

I have made 3 appeals to the moderator of the podcasts forum and he has responded, “You are not welcome on the podcasts forum.”

The subject of race was the main topic of conversation on Eamon Dunphy’s US politics podcast for the last 3 Fridays.

The theme on the said podcast is that the George Floyd trial is just another simple case of bad white cop vs innocent black man. This narrative has a right to be challenged. This should be allowed to be discussed without being labelled a racist.

Applehunter

Tokyo

applehunter - thank you for the update. I will bring this to the CMods now.

applehunter

Good morning,

Just wondering has there been any update on your discussion.

Thanks
applehunter

Tokyo

Not yet I'm afraid. I'll see if the CMods are available.

If not, I am happy to look at your complaint in the role of CMod. If you are not happy with the outcome, you will still be entitled to an admin review from another admin as per the procedure in the graphic at the top of the page. Does that work for you?

applehunter

Yes

applehunter

Hi Tokyo,

Any more updates on this.

It has been over a month at this stage since I raised the issue.

Thanks
applehunter

applehunter

Is there a reason my dispute is taking so long?

Mickeroo

I think real life stuff has gotten in the way of Tokyo having a look at this, I will poke the CMods one last time. I will get back to you within a day or two if they still aren't available.

applehunter

Thought as much.

Thanks Mickeroo

Mickeroo

No word from the CMods unfortunately.

I can take on the CMod role for now like Tokyo was going to if that's alright with you. If you're not happy with my decision you can get a second opinion of one of the other admins.

When you get a chance could you forward on the entire PM exchange between you and the mod or else post it here.

Thanks.

applehunter

Mickeroo wrote: »

No word from the CMods unfortunately.

I can take on the CMod role for now like Tokyo was going to if that's alright with you. If you're not happy with my decision you can get a second opinion of one of the other admins.

When you get a chance could you forward on the entire PM exchange between you and the mod or else post it here.

Thanks.

Hi Mickeroo,

Yes, that is ok with me.

Applehunter

Mickeroo

Perfect, send on or post up the pms when you get a chance.

Mickeroo

Hi Applehunter,

Thanks for sending on the PMs, I think you left one out going by the conversation the mod forwarded on but that was likely an accident.

I have had a look at this over the weekend and I'm sorry to say your posts on that thread do not come across well. You seemed to be trying to say the mitigating factor in the statistic you quoted was race which is not really acceptable.

You might not have intended for your argument to come across the way it did but unfortunately it did.

On the face of it the permanent ban may seem a little harsh since your previous sanction on the forum was only a two week ban but after discussing it with the mod I can see where they are coming from, not to mention you only narrowly avoided a permanent ban in that case because you had the good sense to delete the post before the mods got to it. Your posting very regularly causes aggro on threads and generally just contributes to a crappy atmosphere in the forum. Your poor record across the site reflects this as almost all of your sanctions are for similarly inappropriate and disruptive posting so I can see why the podcast mods just don't want to put up with your posts.

On that basis I'm going to uphold the ban as I feel a "one last chance" in the forum would be a waste of everyone's time.

Just to point out I'm only reviewing this in the capacity of a CMod rather than an Admin so my decision isn't final and you can of course request for one of the other admins to review this further if you don't want to accept the above.

applehunter

Hi Mickeroo,

Can you PM these offending posts I made, it is 2 months ago at this stage. As far as I can see the Mod deleted them all.

Thanks
applehunter

Mickeroo

You have the main one screen shot in your OP.

As I said, you can have another admin look at this if you like.

applehunter

Hi Mickeroo,

Am I entitled to see these other posts on other topics that are incriminating me?

to the point...

"You might not have intended for your argument to come across the way it did but unfortunately it did."

Isn't that their issue?

I didn't post anything racist, it is only that other people perceived what I posted to be racist.

Why should I be banned because others have a certain sensitives?

This isn't how discussions o debate happen IRL.

Dunphy's podcasts over the previous month leading up the verdict of George Floyd were no way indicative of how American people view the issue of race.

I would like to request that this be adjudicated by another admin.

Thanks
applehunter

hullaballoo

Hi applehunter, I will review this as an Admin.

There is no question that your post was objectively and inherently racist and frankly what your intent was or otherwise is not relevant.

It may be that you do not understand what makes something racist but that's not something you can rely on to justify saying something racist.

The only qualm I have here is on the length of the ban. I will downgrade that slightly to "indefinite" rather than "permanent" and suggest that if you keep your nose clean on the site for say 12 months, educate yourself on what racism is, you can apply for access again with the Podcast mods at that time if you can show you have taken steps to clean up your act.

This is without prejudice to the outcome of any future decision by mods to reject any such application.

Thanks - I'll mark this as resolved.