Ban Appeal - Jennifer

My IGN: Jennifer
I just received a 3-days-ban by "AliNicole" for saying "Sup niggas" to my friends in all chat.

I had no clue that this was a bannable offense since I might have skipped this part of the rules while reading it, so I started to read them with a bit more concentration.

This is what I found:
Engage in rude, unlawful, harassing, vulgar, obscene, hateful, threatening, abusive or otherwise objectionable behavior, including, without limitation, looting, kill stealing, making sexual comments; Punishment: 1st offence - 3 day ban, 2nd offence - 7 day ban, 3rd offence - permanent ban

Transmit any content that is unlawful, harassing, vulgar, obscene, hateful, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, sexually explicit, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, or that could be deemed to be stalking or constitute an invasion of a right of privacy of another person.

It seems "niggas" or "******" is a racial slur in America (this word is barely used in Europe with maybe the exception of the UK, so I actually had no idea.) So as it seems by the rules I deserve a 3-day-ban. In dutch ****** is the same as neger which is actually a neutral word and not pejorative. Which is why I got confused.

Quote Wikipedia “Many other languages have words that sound the same as ******, but do not necessarily have the same meaning, while on the other hand having ethnic slurs dissimilar to '******' but carrying the same meaning.
Some examples of how other languages refer to a black person in a neutral and in a pejorative way:
Dutch: neger is neutral, zwartje (little black one) can be amicably or offensively used, nikker is always pejorative”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/******

Even if the word ****** is bannable, I don’t see why I should be banned for it, since I only said it to my friends who didn’t take offense. No was one was hurt nor offended, so I have no idea why I should be banned. Is it fair to punish someone who actually meant the word in a non-offensive playful way?

Also I would like to draw attention to the GM that banned me, AliNicole.
You may also know that she goes under the alias’ Alicatt and Alicia.

I have seen her harass Blake with sexual comments multiple times in game. Does this mean there is a double standard? Because sexual comments and racial slurs are under the same rule. Do GM’s receive special treatment to say what they want? Because it obviously shows Ali is receiving special treatment. This is bias, you are prejudice towards the normal players. It is also ironic how the person who banned me was the person who broke the exact same rule.

I think sexual comments and racism is obviously the same standard since it is under the same rule. Also aren’t the rules the same for the forums? Why is Alicatt able to say things like this, even if it is under the discussion thread? I mean what if I was 13 years old and read this?

Quote “I personally enjoy both giving and receiving oral, but I dunno if I will ever be cool with the swallowing bit.

And @Tobi on the really crappy comment about it being called BJ week for a reason....there are these magical things called showers that do wonders for Aunt Flo sex. Just sayin.”

Source: http://royals.ms/forum/showthread.php?t=2558&page=3

I mean how are we supposed to be mature/professional if the staff isn’t?

Proof of Alicatt, I got more if it is needed:

Spoiler

I’m guessing Ali banned me because she was offended by my use of the word ******, but it wasn’t even directed to her, and as far as she know she is white, so why is she even taking offense? It seems like she is trying to pick a fight. I thought GMs were supposed to be nice. Also, she is a GM, shouldn’t she be objective? She could of also given me a little warning if she didn’t like my language. Are there no chat bans in this server? Why are people only receiving straight up 3 day bans, this is ridiculous.

Next, am I like the first person who's getting banned for using this slur in all chat? My friends who played longer then me on this server, said it's an instant-ban if you SMEGA a racial slur like that but never heard of someone getting banned for using it in all chat. There is no clear rule on this subject on the rules.

Did AliNicole feel that I was talking to her? If she did, I am very sorry, and I apologize for the use of the word ******.

On this topic, I would also like to talk about the word ******. After talking to some of my American friends and using google, I’ve come to realize ****** isn’t used like it was 10/20/50/100 years ago which might have been offensive to black people, as it was a slang word for a slave. Nowadays this has changed completely, globalization and music has changed the meaning of this word. It is now often used by the black community as a form of kinship or even a compliment, so I think context should be a huge factor in bans. Since ****** has multiple meanings, especially since it can be confused with other terms, such as the country niger, negro which is black in Spanish, etc.

Quotes to back up this point:

Spoiler

The word ****** in the United States was not originally considered derogatory but merely denotative. In nineteenth century American literature there are many uses of the word ****** with no intended negative connotation.

At times, African Americans have appropriated the slur, subverting it to a self-referential term that is often suggestive of familiarity, endearment, or kinship. When spelled phonetically, the word often was represented as ******; however, currently, when used in this manner, the spelling is often changed to ***** or niggah.

Spoiler

The crazy thing about it is we do it all day everyday there is new slang & terminology in the hood. The word bad sometimes means good now. you changed it. you did it. Why can't we change the meaning of the word ******? whitey changed it. change it back. that's what revolution means- complete change.

The greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the minds of the oppressed.
The greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. An African who uses the word ***** has given his mind to his oppressor, you allowed the oppressor to make you believe that you are a ******.

I would like to thank the staff for taking their time to consider my ban appeal.
I would like it to be known that I apologise for what I did, and I simply just want to have fun playing the game, and I didn't intend to harass or disturb anyone else's gameplay.

I just feel like this is totally unmature, unproductive and just unnecesarry.
Discourages me from playing at all.

Also note in John's Thread.
source: http://royals.ms/forum/showthread.php?p=12797#post12797
Quote " Therefore, all acts prior to this shall not be acted upon, but will be from here on out." This was posted after I was banned..

 

Jennifer, your last quote regarding mine was correct. However, that does not mean your ban will be lifted. That statement simply means that someone cannot come forward and say "How come X wasn't banned" like you just did regarding Ali. Since you have already been banned, the ban will not be lifted until the 72 hours have elapsed.

 

You have seemed to respond to one sentence of my thread and ignore the rest..

That fact was not made crystal clear before, so I don't see why I should be banned for something that was not CLEAR, obviously you know the subject needed clarification, hence your post.

 

No it was quite clear: Engage in rude, unlawful, harassing, vulgar, obscene, hateful, threatening, abusive or otherwise objectionable behavior, including, without limitation, looting, kill stealing, making sexual comments; Punishment: 1st offence - 3 day ban, 2nd offence - 7 day ban, 3rd offence - permanent ban

You yourself said you skipped over reading parts of the rules. Ignorance is no excuse.

 

You fix your eye on the beginning of my thread, while the ACTUAL reasoning is not in the beginning of my thread..

 

By the way, the GM in question must have also been ignorant, which is unacceptable!

 

We are in the process of addressing professionalism issues among the staff.

Intent cannot be proven and is therefore not a viable defense. Nor is ignorance.

Usage of the n-word has been bannable on this server before this recent rule posting. We just posted it to give everyone a heads up that we will now be presenting a unified front against it.

In the past, some GMs have erroneously neglected to take action in certain instances which caused confusion. In an effort to give some added stability to our players, we will now ALL be doing what we were supposed to be doing from day one.

In addition, it has come to light that some of our own behaviors have been less than savory in the past, we are remedying this as fast as possible. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.

The above is the tl;dr version of our response. There are other matters that we need to attend to at this time, so a better (and most likely lengthier) response will hopefully come soon. I hope this clears some things up in the mean time.