There is hope for this world yet

[fpb]

The internet cafe where I go in the long wait for a phone line of my very own has a regular clientele of teen-agers who spend hours playing videogames. I am used to hearing them discuss their strategies and results aloud and with occasionally salty language.

Of course this language is mostly of the modern street variety, anything from "gay" to "motherf..."

Except that just now, a very small black lad right near me has used the literate, Popeian insult "dunce".

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh for Heaven's sake. You really are set on fitting me up for a racist. The little black boy might as well have been white or Chinese or Indian or Arabic, I see them all at that cafe, playing the same games. Now either you stop using every twisted sort of way to find racism in what I say, or I ask you to take yourself out of my blog. I allow anyone to come in and comment, but I am the ultimate arbiter of what stays in - and insults against myself do not stand much of a chance.

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

You recently apologised for misunderstanding me.
If that apology was indeed sincere, can we change the current direction of this exchange and work towards greater understanding instead?

I did not accuse you of racism. Even if I had, though, why should such a statement be grounds for my eviction?