How Can It Be Wrong To Openly Say You Do Not Like Certain People?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2321362/I-stand-Jewish-people-Lawyer-loses-career-office-rant-queue-jumping-man-medical-centre.html

/// Trouble began after she attended the Bardoc medical centre in Bury with her baby. The hearing was told a man dressed in Orthodox Jewish attire 'caused a scene' at the surgery and as a result was seen first by a doctor. ///

/// Back at the law firm Mrs Morris relayed the incident to a receptionist she shared her office with and said: 'I cannot stand Jewish people.' ///

Would she had been so treated if she had said "I cannot stand old people"?

[Ellipsis]

> However if they had said all Jews are stupid or thick then that would have been a slur because they are insulting that group with a derogatory remark. Merely saying 'I don't like Jews' is not the same.

In saying 'I don't like Jews' you're may be omitting the reason you don't like them, but you're still saying that there's some trait that they, as a group, share which justifies your dislike - and that's racist.

[Bazile]

dave50

How is saying - ' you dont like jews ' any different from saying ' you dont like all jews ' ?

[Sharingan]

Beacause Bazile to dislike me because I'm Jewish is fine. To dislike my mother ( or any other Jew) before you even met them on the basis that she is of the same ethnic group to me is not fine.

[sp1814]

Sqad

You wrote:

Yes, clearly this was an expensive "slip of the tongue" as clearly she can "stand" some Jews.

In what way? Is she now working for a Jewish law firm?

Also, surely your statements should read:

I cannot stand scousers...........but not ALL scousers.

I cannot stand homosexuals.........but not all homosexuals.

otherwise they're contradictory.

Actually, you might be right. Human ARE contradictory animals. We can hold two almost opposing ideas in our heads at one time quite happily.

[Zeuhl]

LOL sp

Yeah I could be anti-semitic

except of course for Chaplin, Kubrick, Goldie Hawn, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, Einstein, Freud, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Jackie Mason etc etc etc .....

[lcg]

Aog.....even for you this is a stupid question. As for the solicitor concerned, I think it demonstrates her qualities as a brief quite well. I'm fairly sure she got her law degree off the side of a cornflakes packet.

[dave50]

What if someone said they don't like Germans or French or Spanish or Americans, is that ok? What if they went on to say they didn't like Indians or Pakistanis? Would that then not be ok? What if they said 'I don't like Germans and Egyptians'? What then? Where is the line drawn?

[Sqad]

sp.

it is either my age or my lack of intellect....probably both, but your comment about what i should have posted has "gone over my head."

Now, no, she probably doesn't work in a Jewish Law firm, but the experience of life has indicated to me that nobody (post WW2) hates ALL Jews...do they?

[Sharingan]

No it's not okay it's Xenophobic- I'm amazed anyone has to ask.

[Bazile]

Sharingan

The point i'm making is that - saying that ' i dont like jews ' ( not some jews ) , is the same as saying ' i dont like all jews '

[Zeuhl]

The line is discriminating against someone because they belong to a particular ethnic group

If your reason for not employing a german applicant or for refusing someone a hotel room was because you 'don't like germans' i think you would soon find out where 'the line' is

[jim360]

The line is drawn, perhaps, when you say that you cannot stand people in group X, when a person from that same group is listening. If after they challenge you on it you still insist on saying the same thing, the line has been well and truly crossed. So, yes, if I said "I hate Frenchies" and a Frenchman is listening, he might well be offended by that.

That's not to say I shouldn't say it when I happen to know that there aren't French people nearby -- but certainly in the case when someone who is listening might be offended, you should jolly well watch what you say.

[chrisgel]

Do we not have to distinguish here between two entirely different issues.
Discrimination is objective and as such can be seen in action and can, quite rightly, be legislated against.
Opinion is subjective and by it's very nature cannot be legislated against. Whilst someones opinion may be offensive to the majority of people you cannot deny anyone the right to their opinions. In fact, by attempting to do so you could in fact harden that persons views.
In Bangladesh there are people being beheaded because they hold different opinions to others. If we as a democracy don't want to go down that path then we should resist all attempts to restrict the right of people to hold opinions contrary to the majority.

[jim360]

I may have got mixed up on my negatives in my last post...

If you say something offensive and discriminatory and something you are discriminating against hears you, it's your own fault for being so stupid as to say it in the first place. Just because no-one is offended doesn't make it right though -- just less likely to end in a lawsuit.

[joeluke]

She should have said " 'I cannot stand Jewish people who whinge so that they can queue jump"

[joeluke]

The fact that you can get in this much bother simply by saying you don't like certain people is our uber -PC world gone mad again

It's called expressing an opinion.........or are we to be denied that too now?

[bazwillrun]

Another pathetic case of PC at it very best/worst whichever you like but as always we have the usual suspects who quite clearly have very little to do and far too much time on their hands arguing over semantics and pedantry....quelle surprise

[Mamyalynne]

As stated already , what she couldn't stand was the fact someone was seen ahead of her in the Surgery - the fact she failed to operate brain before opening her mouth is rather concerning given her profession.

[jim360]

The old world is dying, baz. The world where there was some strange right to be ignorant and racist and to expect those who were offended by it to put up and shut up. It's clear that in some cases we are also going too far the other way, too scared of causing offence for legitimate views to be end. But I can't say that I'll particularly miss that old world, of minorities being made to feel unwelcome, of mainly women, black people and others being barred from jobs or equal pay on no grounds there than because they were women or black or old or gay.

I won't miss that world one bit.

[joeluke]

I liked the old world

You could speak your mind without some do gooder jumping on you saying "you can't say that"