Comment moderation is back on

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

I’ve shut down comments to a few recent posts and turned comment moderation back on. So when you post a comment, it will no longer be automatically be posted to the blog. It will be held in a queue until I approve or reject it.

The last thing I want to do is be a heavy-handed moderator, but the last week has been absolutely fucking ridiculous.

At some point I’ll draft an official policy but in the meantime, please follow these common-sense guidelines:

1. Don’t make threats of violence, ever.

2. Don’t address people using racial slurs. And yes, that includes anti-white racial slurs or even belittling/condescending remarks like “white boy.”

3. Don’t make personal attacks. If you’re not smart enough to win an argument without resorting to calling someone fat, stupid, crazy, or whatever, maybe you should work on your rhetorical skills.

4. Don’t respond to trolls. If someone is clearly posting a comment with the intention of starting a fight, or posting completely wrong, racist-ass pseudoscientific crap like “all white people are albinos, science proved it”, JUST IGNORE THEM. And since I’ve turned moderation on, I’ll probably end up deleting their comment anyway because I don’t have time to deal with the fall-out.

5. In general, let’s stay away from long, drawn-out arguments and fights. Once a thread descends into point-by-point refutations and denials, it has (not always, but a lot of the time) turned to crap.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more guidelines, but I’m exhausted and fed up with this shit.

Excuse the profanity.

6. One more. Let’s stay away from oppression olympics please. I’m not saying it’s never something to be discussed, but generally speaking, bickering over who has it worse off, or who’s more racist, is really kind of useless.

7. And another one. Try not to speak in generalizations, don’t attribute characteristics to entire ethnic or racial groups. Adding modifiers like “some” or talking specifically about your personal experiences help reduce the likelihood that you’re stereotyping entire communities.

3/19/2007 update – two more to add

8. Don’t respond to a post or comment by saying “why don’t you focus on some REAL issues like the war/starving children in Africa/police brutality/etc.” Newsflash: this is a blog about race and pop culture. If you’re not interested in discussing the intersection of those two things, please go elsewhere.

9. Don’t respond to critiques about racism by telling the person making the critique that they’re just too sensitive. Coffeeandink said it best in the brilliant How to Suppress Discussions of Racism: “If you can accuse your opponent of “paranoia,” “white guilt,” “internalized racism,” “whining,” “overreacting,” “paternalism,” “condescension,” “being obsessed with race,” “bitching about racism at the drop of a hat,” or “taking things too personally,” you don’t need to bother addressing the content of their remarks.”