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Comment by keithnz | Hacker News Reader

because in a workspace the culture is one of inclusiveness, the onus on you is to be inclusive, I'm sorry to say, that's going to require some awareness on your part. But don't worry, it will likely just make you a better person overall.

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A workplace is not required to ensure you're not offended, only that you're not sexually harassed, harrases in general, or discriminated against (if a protected class). A workplace can also not force inclusiveness.

I fear that the swing in PC culture is going to cause more harm than good for "inclusiveness" now that the pendulum has swung too far.

I'm not from/in the US. PC is about respecting people, I don't think we are really in danger of too much respect. The only bad rap PC gets is when people only pay it lip service. but at its core, it's about respect

Exactly. Consider being an employer and having two candidates to hire. Both candidates posess an equal amount of skill, the only difference is their gender. Now you have two options: you can hire a woman and risk that she will complain about "toxic work environment" and "sexism in the industry" while tying your company name to these accusations... or you can hire a man and not worry about that at all. Why wouldn't you go for the second option? Not only you will get the same result when it comes to work, you'll also avoid the situation described in the article.

Avoiding funny jokes because they might offend someone won’t teach people anything. It’ll just make them feel like they have to suppress what they actually want to say.

Most people have a thick enough skin to get over it, so the people around them don’t all have to adjust to their feelings.

funny jokes that are made at the expense of people really don't have any place in the workplace. In comedy there is a concept that anything can be made funny. So, limiting the kinds of jokes you make still leaves you an almost infinite amount of jokes to make :)

Sure, people do have thick skins mostly, but you shouldn't rely on that. Again, it's just about being respectful of people.

Yes, but that can’t be done preemptively, see? Anyone I meet could be anything—any religion, any race, even a neo-Nazi for all I know—and it wouldn’t be evident from their appearance. So should I just avoid all jokes that are at anyone’s expense? Isn’t it better to be unafraid about what I say and to apologize if a joke I made was at the expense of someone in the room and they were offended by it? I never intend to offend anyone, but I’ve also had quite a few good-natured laughs at others’ expense without any intention of demeaning them. I don’t see anything wrong with that if I apologize once someone is offended and then avoid making jokes at their expense around them.

My path of least resistance is to avoid talking to $minority. So the end result of this PC culture will be less inclusiveness.

correct, that is the path of least resistance. Culture change takes real effort

But I don't want to change the culture to one where we can't say anything for fear of hurt some special snowflakes feelings. In fact I'll fight against it.

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