From: Roberto.Ramos@f71.n382.z1.fidonet.org (Roberto Ramos)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Deaf Culture
Date: 12 Aug 92 21:29:42 GMT
Reply-To: Roberto.Ramos@f71.n382.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:382/71 - BitStream, Round Rock Tx
X-Fidonet: Silent Talk Conference

Index Number: 23898

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Laurel, I'm mainly a lurker here. I'm coming out due to your post
about hate mail you got. If it's real hate mail, Ann is correct in
advising you to ignore the bigot and leave him with his problem. I
do wish to mention something here that you might want to consider.

Three times I witnessed a strange phenomenon. On PCLINK also known
as America Online, I was in a live forum on the Rodney King
incident. One person claimed to be on the jury and "revealed"
truths hidden by the media. The truths were very damning to King
and Blacks in general. I don't like King or anyone who drinks, does
drugs, and beats his woman. I consider such creatures non-humans.
However, this person portrayed something that was false. PCLINK
provides a means to identify a user. The Ctrl-I command showed the
accuser was a Bostonian. The trial was in Ventura, California. When
confronted with this, the accuser came up with a lot of lame
excuses about visiting Mass. etc. It didn't wash. This person only
wanted another group to look bad and worse than bad. It was hate
motivated. He further gave himself away when he referred to Blacks
as apes and monkeys.

Again on PCLINK, a user portrayed himself as Oriental and made
statements that got him TOS'ed or dumped from the network. By sheer
chance, this person's real name, the alias notwithstanding, was
available from the members directory database. By chance again,
another alias of his was available. He was part of an "adult" group
that exchanged gif pictures of themselves with like-minded people.
A fellow PCLINKER downloaded a photo and discovered the TOS'ed
person was a white male. Apparently his seeking to portray an
indecent Oriental was hate motivated as well.

The third incident was a woman who posted multiple racist
statements on an echo carried by a Chino, California BBS. By all
appearances she was Black. However, this proved to not be the case.
The sysop got fed up with her. He dumped her but she logged on
under different names and used other phone numbers. One was her
work phone number. A dumb mistake because the sysop simply gave the
cops the phone numbers. He asked them to end her harassment. When
they asked around, they discovered she was not Black. I don't know
what happened after that. There was an article on her in the papers
there a few years back. It also talked about secret networks run by
skin-heads,neo-nazis, and the like. Even terrorist groups.

I'm saying that BBS' and echoes offer great opportunities for
people to engage in some rather deceitful and hateful activities. A
person may not be what they portray themselves as being. They can
create very false impressions of others as we often have no way of
knowing who we really are dealing with. Potential anonymousity
seems to encourage such behavior. Fortunately, most users are a cut
above such pettiness. On top of this Laurel, you might adopt some
advice Jim Womack gave me when he learned I was going to post you.
He said a person's color has nothing to do with whether they are
decent or indecent. It's the person themselves who are what they
are. He also said he'd be E-Mailing you. That's expensive, I told
him so. I guess he has his reasons. He did say something about
being painted in false hues by non-democratic painters. He talks a
lot in allegorical terms and laughs so much. Sometimes I'm not sure
if he's kidding or not.

Just ignore the non-person as Ann suggests. He or she isn't worth
your time.

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