today's message:

Oh, yay, our very own racewank in HP fandom.  And yet, possibly unlike other fandoms' Issues, this one really doesn't have merit on both sides.  The word "miscegenation" is an offensive archaism, left over from a time when it really was okay to consider that a relationship in which one individual was not white "polluted" the white race.  In these enlightened times, people who maintain this belief tend to find groups of like-minded people in which to express it.  Fandom, with all thanks to whatever deity you care to thank, is not such a group.

The community daily_deviant is named with its tongue in its cheek, or so I'd always thought.  We [note:  I have never been a member of that community; "we" here = fans in general, specifically slash fans] don't really think homosexuality is deviant behavior, do we?  And yet the community has its name.  What has happened here is a complete collapse of irony, because -- as I said above -- nobody who used the word "miscegenation" was actually kidding, and everybody who heard it knew this.

I don't care how offensive people intend to be.  I care how offensive they are.  If you use the word "jew" as a verb having to do with getting someone to sell you something at a reduced (possibly lower than fair) price, I will fume and seethe and eventually ask you if you understand how offensive verbal "jew" is.  If you say "everything is offensive to somebody" and blithely carry on using "jew" as a verb, I will lose whatever respect for you I began with and tell everyone I know that you have refused to acknowledge what you may never have previously realized was your latent anti-Semitism.

This is exactly what we're dealing with here.  I encourage everyone who has any measure of influence over the mods at daily_deviant to continue urging them to change the "miscegenation" prompt.

[eta:  Hey, it turns out I'm late to the party.  I saw all this last night, and didn't comment on it until just now,  and I'd missed the fact that the prompt was changed.  Thanks to batagur for the heads up; nevertheless, I'm leaving my post, because I don't want anyone to have the impression that I remained neutral on this issue in any way, shape, or form.]

sigh.

Everyone else has gone to bed.  I have lurked in the downstairs, reading some background material on How To Chair A Good Bonspiel (one tip:  there are some timelines that begin 3 months out -- which, in this case, was two and a half weeks ago.  oops!), before calling it a night.

And I just heard Norman, my roommate for the week, fussing on the baby monitor.  Who wants to place bets on whether she'll have put herself back to sleep by the time I get up there?  (I'll completely ignore her, of course, and move quietly and not turn on the lights, so maybe the next time she wakes up and fusses I'll already be asleep ...)