Accident avoided

It's not a matter of being allowed. It is a matter of relevance. The initial reference to race was unecessary but was a shortcut to explain the communication gap. It would've sufficed if it was stated that there was a problem being understood because the person didn't have a firm grasp of the english language. Then MB may have said that he has seen some scarey treework out there.

Oh well, sensitivity training 101...
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Besides. I think the post was to show a good example of how to steer a homeowner towards working safely with trees.

Oops!
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Is "homeowner" a P.C. word to describe someone who owns a home? Let me know if I offended someone for using that word.
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Racist comment Butch, keep them out of here.

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So if he'd said, "I've seen those Swedes do some crazy treework." would that have been racist? 'Asian' is the PC term, right? Maybe we should eliminate identifiers altogether... Not 'tall' not 'short' just 'a person', not 'black' not 'white' just 'a woman'. Heck, we really shouldn't be allowed to differentiate between men and women! Might offend someone!

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i agree with tom. "those asians" is the prejudiced part of the comment. there is nothing about being asian that causes one to do poor tree work, though i'm sure there are asians who do poor tree work. maybe what you meant to say is "those low income people who can't afford to pay for treework"? i think my buddy wenda li, ITCC world champ in 2003, would take offense to associating a particular quality of tree care with her culture.
as for eliminating qualifiers - not at all. how about "that asian"? the prejudiced thing is to associate a characteristic with a group. to make it more graphic - would you ever dream of saying something like "those blacks are stupid" or "those women have huge breasts"? of course these comments are obviously discrimination - yet some women have huge breasts and some blacks are stupid.

good conversation, thanks guys. wrong forum though, sorry about that. off my soapbox now, and back to awakenings..

good for both of you guys for stepping in and trying to save people from their own ignorance. fewer injuries/fatalities because folks like you stepped up and took a moment to help.

k.
 
Awakenings aren't just about physical life and death.

From the forum description: "...to help increase safety and awareness!"

Mental and personal growth can come from awakenings too.

Jamin's use of Asian was germane to the discussion because he was relating a language issue. He could have just said that there was a language barrier I guess. His example had nothing to do with race, it was language. Much different.

I don't think of this as PC. It has to do with respect and acceptance. This thread has certainly taken on a life that I never expected :)
 
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I've seen those asians do some scarey treework.



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Are there that many Asians in Louisana who do tree work? Because I've been in the industry for more than 15 years and live in fairly multicultural cosmopolitan city and I have come across only one other Asian tree worker and he's a pretty good arborist. As for myself, I would like to think that I do decent work, but it's hard to be objective when critiquing yourself.

It would be easy for me to say, yes, I take offence for the aforementioned comment because tree guys are all a bunch of rednecked chain saw weilding yahoos. However, I would like to believe that the majority of the TB community are so passionate about trees, and the inherent dangers of this industry, that sometimes some of us become overtly critical of those who do sloppy treework, fail to respect safety precautions, and are just uninformed about arboriculture, that they accidentally say thing they don't mean.

To Tom and Kathy, I was totally blown away by your comments. I'm a typically shy person and aspire to be as vocal and as sincere as you are. Thanks for keeping the board professional and socially atuned to cultural sensitivities.
 
hey wenda, thanks for the kudos and i'm really psyched to see you here!! and don't worry, i think the vast majority of TB folks see no connection between "slanted eyes" and poor tree work.
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k.
 
Tom, way to go, too many people think a tree just fall straight dowan and its over.
The PC stuff is one way agreeable, and in the other ignorant. Perception is unfortuneately reality for some. If the only blue person I saw doing tree work was doing it poorly, there is a chance that I may think that all blue people do it poorly based on 1 incident. I just think it sucks when you say something that gets taken completely out of context, then you have to start justifying and explaining. I'll stop rambling now...........
 
Hey Grrlsquirrel, You are a damn good climber and taught me much. The comment made didn't refer to someone in the industry but outside of it.

In my experience in the same cosmopolitan city as you, we have come across all race, creeds and colours that do some scarey stuff where trees are concerned.
 
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