Most people in this group DON'T have to worry about defending themselves on the race issue, and shouldn't feel guilty. The fault with a lot of Qb-ers, and I don't leave myself out of this at all, is not that there's a level of prejudice out there (and please remember that there's a difference -- albeit a fine one -- between racism and prejudice) against certain ethnic groups, but a general lack of certain social skills. One of those is a (sometimes) naive lack of courtesy on many people's parts. Some people simply don't know when they're being offensive -- physically or otherwise. These people simply don't do well around others, and you learn to live with it inside quizbowl. For every polite Chris Romero or Charlie Steinhice, there's a ________________. Sure, OU's squad can be boorish, rude, and frighteningly offensive when we've had a few too many, or Adam is complaining about too many sports questions in Trash packets, but that's nothing compared to those people who play these matches and think that nailing 6+ toss-ups per round makes their defecation less fragrant. Snobbishness is always a facade for a lack of self-respect, and knowing a lot of stuff doesn't equal the right to belittle others. As for the post about the pointlessness of trivia competition, face it -- quizbowl isn't meaningless or pointless to a lot of us, it's an attempt to be competitive in a field where we stand out: intelligence, memory recall, and knowledge (and, yes, I'm not sure the first one applies to me at all ... or the second ... and the third...). If we were bigger, stronger, and faster, we might've been football stars, but, as is, we're smart, and we play quizbowl. I don't think it's meaningless, or silly, unless all competition for personal fulfillment is a bit silly, which could be argued. Sorry, lost the thread... Personally, Diarrheamadman lost me when he stated that he could laugh at racist or homophobic jokes. An open mind is one thing, but laughing at how certain people offensively categorize other people is just bewildering. I don't see how that post offends Chip and these types of jokes don't. You say there's no problem because you don't believe the offensive sterotypes? Well, then why not change the group in question and see if the joke is still funny? Believe yourself to be above racist jokes and, therefore, can hear them and laugh without continuing their offensive nature? Congrats, you're a hypocrite, and enjoy your copy of Soul Man. Was I offended by the original tourney past? No, but if I hadn't known it was created via a computer program, I would've thought the writers were aping Quentin Tarantino dialogue. That's the difference between the first post and the comment about racist/homophobic jokes: the post wasn't trying to create a form of bond or solidarity by pointing out incorrect stereotypes about certain groups, and the jokes do. The "One to Grow On" cliche would be that we all need to start working on being less offensive to other people, but that should already be obvious. What isn't is that a lot of people in this group couldn't care less about offending other people, not because they're prejudiced against other people, but towards themselves. David Murphy, Univ. of Oklahoma (Who thinks everything would be solved if people would simply start hanging out with other teams at tournaments once in a while instead of avoiding contact at all costs. And sometimes drinking beer and singing karaoke in the process, although the latter part might drive people away more than anything.)
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