BF members too touchy

K

King Grinch

Joined
Feb 6, 2000
Messages
698
What the heck is wrong with is thread?

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=166535

His motives are not the question. Just give the man a answer. Don't worry about WHY he wants to know. Maybe he is with AKTI and wants to know the state of the industry and far as the race of makers goes or maybe he is just curious. If blacks(and other minorities) stopped buying knives many of you would complain about the industry being hurt. It DOES matter that there are minority makers. I don't agree with the mod closing the topic so soon.

AL MAR is black.
 
I agree that there was nothing wrong with the question. We ought to be happy that someone is asking questions about the craft. As I said before, I have seen threads where people asked about female members or knife makers and no one was offended. I can't see where asking about black or any other group of knife makers ought to offend anyone either. BTW Al Mar was a Chinese American, not an African American.
 
I think Spark was right to close it down. After reading it, people were getting WAY too hot under the collar. Lighten up, guys!
 
Hmmmm.....I read the thread and at the time, didn't know what to think (or even what/how to reply). I concluded that it wasn't a racial dig, but just a somewhat off-the-wall question. I think the reactions that stemmed from the question, were a knee-jerk result of the (recently) ingrained taboo of mentioning anything racial, sexual, or religious.

I have re-read the original post. I saw no evil intent or hint of racism. My .02 cents.
 
I've been noticing this all to often. Some newbie will ask a question that may raise some hairs, and has been asked before. All of a sudden alot of people start yelling "TROLL" or troublemaker without just answering the guys question,

It's to bad. I think a couple of thinner skinned people have been run off from the boards for no reason!
 
I ignored that thread for some time now, and now I refuse to read three pages of most likely nonsense.

If he asked about latino or chinese origin knifemakers, he wouldn't have gotten such a storm.

in reality, most people have not yet learned how to behave to black people... yes, I say black people, yes I refer to skin colour. But I DO NOT imply anything negative about that.
Here at the university we had a long discussion on that, and there is no way of mentioning the black race without a negative trace.

We just all gotta get over our xenofobic nature if we wanna live together on this planet. In the end, we are all humans, one race.
We have to be able to name a group of people without any negative connotation. If you cannot except that, join the xenofobic club.

greetz, bart.
 
What's wrong with that thread?

One prick too many, IMO.
What's funny is that this prick (mgeoffriau) gets mad, and does the typical "I'm not posting on this anymore" because "the topic has shifted".
Only for you dummy, only for you.
Thanks for ruining an interesting and informative thread for the rest of us, you troll.
 
:confused: :confused: :confused:
I see nothing wrong with that post.He asked a simple question and didn´t make any racist statements. If I wanted to know more about Saami-knifemakers and posted on this forum no one would call me racist ??
 
Originally posted by OwenM
What's funny is that this prick (mgeoffriau) gets mad, and does the typical "I'm not posting on this anymore" because "the topic has shifted".
Click to expand...
I left an open invitation to discuss this topic on the Political Forum where racial issues are more appropriately discussed. In your lather you must have missed that.
Thanks for ruining an interesting and informative thread for the rest of us, you troll.
Click to expand...
Ahh, so informative. Now we can all feel good because there are black knifemakers. We feel so unprejudiced. Yay for us.

I'm not responsible for the bigotry of any other knife knut. I am only responsible for my own behavior, and I don't care what color the skin of a man is.
 
Hi,
I'm not in a lather. It was a subject that interested me. I've seen photos of lots of knifemakers, but can't recall any of them being black.
I don't try to read anything extra into straightforward questions.
It's something I was curious about, too, and some people were sharing information, which is what this forum is about, IMO.
The political forum is a good place for pissing contests, but this "discussion" need not have turned into one.
 
Originally posted by Bart student
If he asked about latino or chinese origin knifemakers, he wouldn't have gotten such a storm.

in reality, most people have not yet learned how to behave to black people... yes, I say black people, yes I refer to skin colour. But I DO NOT imply anything negative about that.
Here at the university we had a long discussion on that, and there is no way of mentioning the black race without a negative trace.

We just all gotta get over our xenofobic nature if we wanna live together on this planet. In the end, we are all humans, one race.
We have to be able to name a group of people without any negative connotation. If you cannot except that, join the xenofobic club.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, bart, and I disagree with you.

First, I disagree that we should be a homogeneous single race of people - at this point in history. Our individual cultural heritages are precious, and should be recognized and preserved, as long as we don't cross over into xenophobia, as you mention. There is still much that each of us can learn from each other. America is "The Great Melting Pot", with pretty much every race, creed, etc. somehow (lots of times poorly) integrated - do you want your country to adopt our culture?

But I do agree with you that many of us are uncertain how we should step out of our own racial or cultural niche, and express our interest in other groups. It's really sad, though, that there are some who are so confused that they can't even allow for honest, genuine interest without pre-judging it to have a racist or otherwise negative tone.
 
OwenM,

geoffriau has a habit of turning almost any thread, no matter how mundane, into a pissing contest.

That's just my opinion, though.
 
I don't think there is anything wrong in inquiring about whether there are black knifemakers or whether there is a history of black knifemakers etc. The same thing goes for native americans or first nations makers, and for every other group, national, cultural, racial, linguistic or what have you. We identify Canadian makers, Japanese, Korean, female, young, old and Montana makers. Even Newfoundland makers. We recognize black businessmen and scientists for their distictive contributions. Preferring or avoiding them on the basis of race would be discriminatory and racist, but isn't acknowledging them simply a matter of awareness and pride?
If there were reason to suspect that there was some trolling going on, then by all means do what you have to. But, for heaven's sake, not all inquiries about heritage are racist. You can identify yourself as a black person and ask about the contributions of other black people, or polish people or christians or jews or Dene or whatever, without necessarily suggesting superiority or discrimination. Not every gathering of people of similar heritage is a riot or a klan meeting. Some are. I really don't think that thread was objectionable and I do think there was an overreaction, for whatever my opinion is worth. With respect, it also was an over-reaction to call MGeoff a "prick". Goodness knows he and I don't agree on most things, but it was what he perceived as racism that he was reacting to. Maybe he was oversensitive and wrong, but he doesn't deserve name-calling based on that. That should be reserved for the Evolution thread :D [c'mon, I'm just kidding].
Exorciate the substance of a post in the most emphatic terms, if you will [and I do], but leave out the ad hominem stuff, save in the rarest circumstances quite unlike these.
I confess that I don't really know which knifemakers are black and which aren't. To me that sort of thing simply isn't important. Maybe it should be, on historical or stylistic grounds, but I don't think it is for modern american knives. I could be wrong.
In the Gun Digest Book of Knives 5th Edition, Alex Collins was suggested to be "maybe the only African-American custom knifemaker". I can't believe that's true. To me it's more important that he makes great knives as a reflection of his individual gifts. Nonetheless, I think this would be a fair and interesting area for someone to research.
My $.02 Canadian. :)
 
The guy's question was more than valid. It was not posted with racist intentions. If he had asked about any other makers this would not have happened. It's a fact of life that every human being likes to know about their own kind. But I bet if I had asked if there were any other fat,white,aging,powerlifting knifemakers out there, it wouldn't have raised these kind of responses. It's always a good feeling to know there are others like yourself doing something you're into.
Mg, you and a few others are way out of line. If you asked if there were any Ms. makers out there and somebody made some remark about "good 'ol boys" or some such, you'd be insulted. This is no different.

Dave

PS-Al Mar's Chinese-American parents and the rest of his family will be surprised as heck to know he was black :eek:
 
Hi guys, I posted this on the whine and Cheese where a similar threasd was going on. First of all, it's all good. Really. The discussion, the revelations, the facts. Second, I was surprised that the moderator shut down the thread. Who is best served by silence? The forum is for discussion and I thought it could go a little beyond the "my knife is better than your knife" sort of banter that takes place ususally. Oh well, here's the post:

I'll say this once and for all: My query was an honest question without a tinge of racism. I was looking to fill a gap (did blacks participate in knifemaking as a craft and tradition) in my knowledge (seriously I wanted to know, have no "agenda") of American History and knifemaking history.

The question itself was answered straightforwardly by a few and I appreciate that. I have gained knowledge and will build upon it.

The mention of race or color or ethnicity, is not always necessarily charged with agendas, hostility or fear. Too much paranoia. Each of us contributes what is in our heads and hearts to those mentions. Some have contributed negativity, fear, possibly hate. Way more of you have contributed intelligence, knowledge, generosity, and in a non mushy way, love.

In my signature are the words "Shanti, Shanti, Shanti" It translates as "Peace, Peace, Peace." Thats where my head is at.
 
So.........How many Black knife-makers are there? Or White knife-makers? Or Purple knife makers? Or Orange and Green striped knife makers? I want to know!.:D.:D.

...And NO, I'm NOT a racist!.:(.
 
BF Members too touchy?

Uhm...Fellas?

Maybe you all wouldn't feel so "touchy" if perhaps you'd spend a little less time pointing fingers and arguing with each other, and spent a little more time being NICE to each other.

Not every thread is an occasion to unleash hell in the form of a 10,000 word post telling someone they're wrong and quoting "The Code of Hamurabi" to prove your point.

If you don't LIKE the question, then don't ANSWER it.
If the post is truly offensive, BFC Admin will deal with it.

Just as it did when Spark locked the original thread on this.

Try being NICE to each other, not just courteous. You know damned well that you can chew someone into bloody rags and be "courteous" through every bite.

There was no harm and no foul, so why is this topic being beaten to death?
Let it go.
Drop it.
Forget about it.

Go have some FUN and quit taking all this stuff so personally.

This might be a good time to let this thread die too.
 
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