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Comment by kelseyfrog | Hacker News Reader

In all of my years of experience, I haven't met a bigot who didn't know they were being bigoted and why it was bigoted. I have met so very many who when confronted with their bigotry fail very badly at claiming that they don't know. Instead of sticking to their guns they decide to become the world's worst improv actor - it's very easy to spot. Their whole idea is to become as slippery as possible with ignorance and it shows.

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I fully disagree with your sentiment. Yes there are outright bigoted jokes, but I believe many people have a different line in the sand of where appropriate and inappropriate are. There are many jokes that one workplace may deem 100% harmless and another might cause offense. My general assumption is that the person didn't mean to be bigoted, they just didn't understand where the line was.

This of course is not speaking of outright racism, but an example might be wearing a sombrero on Cinco de Mayo. Some workplaces would find this perfectly acceptable, whereas others might deem this racially insensitive and rude. It's not outright bigoted, (in my opinion), and not meant to cause harm, but the workplace culture is the what determines if it is acceptable or not.

It sounds like we're talking about different things and I don't disagree with what you described. In the example you used, where people are unaware of where the line is, I would fully expect that a person caught unaware, would, without trouble, be able to deduce the reason.

It's the hardline bigots who, again in my experience, cannot tolerate being confronted and feign ignorance in an attempt to misdirect. I'm pretty sure, if you found yourself face to face with one of these, you would be able to identify them easily.

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