Why do my threads keep getting shut down?
Oh right nothing matters, racism doesn’t matter lets just meditate and pretend the world around us doesn’t matter. We are all Buddhist we have all the answers. Racism doesn’t matter.
I didn’t realize Buddhist were so intolerant. Maybe it is just theravadins.
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The sutras speak out against racism or any kind of judging people based on their birth.
Mahamoggallana, one of the chief disciples of the buddha, was dark skinned.
I am hispanic and have practiced in numerous sanghas, with other hispanics in them, and have never experienced racism.
At this point, your posts are just hostile and verge on trolling.
You need to take a step back and think about where you are coming from with your hostility.
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Luisito’s account has been deactivated at his own request. If he does return under a different account, I would recommend simply flagging his posts and not engaging.
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Is there something we should know about Luisito that you’re not telling us?
Reference sutta please… 
Just to say, if/when taking this topic forward, please remember (as noted in the original thread this subject arose from), the Watercooler isn’t a place for dogged debate.
Contrary to the premise of the OP, it’s not so much true that racism cannot be discussed on the forum as an absolute rule—it is argumentative, aggressive, antagonistic conduct (around any subject, or towards anyone) that is unacceptable.
That noted, it is also worth highlighting that while threads on topics that step passed the main theme of this forum can usually be happily enough be accommodated here in the Watercooler so long as they are discussed in a cordial, constructive manner; this isn’t a political, or social commentary forum. There are a lot of important subjects around things happening in our world that absolutely do need to be discussed, it is just that those discussions should take place in the appropriate places. If anyone hasn’t done so in a while, please check out the community guidelines as a reminder of what this particular forum is about.
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@DKervick, while I understand the it may be frustrating to ‘sense’ that stuff is happening in the background when there are accusations being thrown around. I’d say that in most cases there is something happening behind the scenes 
While the moderation team really do try to juggle difficult issues as fairly as possible, and we operate from a position of moderator consensus, there are some individuals who just refuse to abide by the community guidelines and really object to them. This may also include private messages not only public posts. There is also the issue of flags and other member experiences. The public posts are often only part of the picture.
However, what goes on between individuals and the admin/mod team has to remain private and confidential. This is only fair, and something that I think all of us agree with and which maintains the integrity of the site. Therefore I’d say that it is reasonable to assume that whatever appears in a complaining post is only part of the story.
Just as a private observation, I think the mod team really does come from a position of compassion and forgiveness, so when something blows up - there is always a very good reason.
I hope this helps.
Just for the record, I’m not replying with my mod hat on here. All responsibility for this post is on me personally
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Vasettha Sutta (3.9)
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To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves – Federico García Lorca
Surely there is a middle way for all of us?
I would like to point out that racism has been discussed on this forum quite a bit.
https://discourse.suttacentral.net/search?q=racis
We would all (I include myself) be well-advised to use the search feature before posting a new topic, or before drawing hasty conclusions about the forum. This is often part of forum guidelines, and I wonder if SC has considered mentioning it in the SC guidelines.
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SuttaCentral automatically reminds us about prior related matter when posting new topics. My concern here is that Luisito may have had a deep question he wished help on and felt completely trivialized and rebuffed. If I could, I would walk over to his house and just listen. Luisito did post in WaterCooler, and was thereby respectful of category in his post.
I will try to reach out to Luis and see what I can do.
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I thought responses to what he asked were respectful, including those which urged Right Speech. To be completely trivialized would include no respect for ability to correct one’s behavior, imo.
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One of the responses involved a classic case of what is called “gaslighting”, I thought. I’m not defending the subsequent tirade.
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I was not able to reproduce this behavior when starting to create a new topic. I didn’t go so far as to click “Create Topic”, but if the reminder comes after that, it is too late.
Yes. I see the gas-lit explosion. I’ve reached out to Luis on FB Messenger to learn more about his original question.
How interesting! I use Chrome and I always see a blue panel to the right of the New Topic large text area. The blue panel displays different pre-existing threads as I enter a new Topic. It’s actually quite helpful in helping my self-moderation. Most puzzling. 
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@karl_lew : I also use Chrome (on Windows). I tried switching from the Legacy to Material interface, but didn’t see any difference.
I do get behavior sort of like that when I type a potential category into the search field. Then when there is enough in the search field so that no pre-existing threads are suggested, then a create new topic option appears. I think I will try to make a habit of using that approach in the future - but the Create New Topic button is still more prominent, and for me that short circuits any indication of pre-existing threads.
I saw a classic example of denial. However, imo in “gaslighting” there is a very personal attack of memories as an effort to induce insanity or doubts of sanity. So i would not use that term myself.
As to the denial that hate crimes are increasing- well, yes, rereading it, this seems to be something one might confront out of respect. This is not an “american” problem however (as in, not only; i do see it as a significant and increasing problem in the US). Hate crimes in several countries in south east asia, in canada, in south america, in europe, in africa, all seem to be increasingly documented, reported, etc.
But imo there is hazard in generalizing about monolithic labels applied to people. Every group has diverse characteristics; even every individual has diverse conditioning and influences on thought, behavior, speech.
May the alt Right be peaceful, be happy, and ultimately liberated. May all be peaceful, happy, and ultimately liberated.
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I very much salute your compassionate instincts, karl_lew.
Generally speaking I just find it easier to ‘wear’ whatever impressions people have with respect of the work the volunteer moderators do rather than engage in trying to put across how things can look at this end. To my own satisfaction it is enough to directly know the amount of sweat and tears that go into attempting to uphold the community guidelines in a balanced, fair, considered way. It’s an absolute given that a portion of people will think the wrong decision has been made (as well they are entitled to) in basically any decision reached and in places make all sorts of wild speculations about underlying attitudes, motivations and whatnot (and as Viveka pointed to, not necessarily consider conversations out of view).
Speaking on my own behalf, I would actually be the first in line to say some of the calls I’ve made over my period of service will have been wrong, but I never stepped into this role offering infallibility, my commitment is to merely try my best to help see the spirit of guidelines by-and-large prevails in the forum space and be as fair as I can, considering all perspectives in doing so. The very nature of the work the mods are asked to do inherently involves blurry lines, blurry lines inherently entails an opportunity to make questionable decisions. In this particular case, I feel the lines were a lot clearer than in many other instances and that the action taken was entirely reasonable.
Either way, that there typically is a degree of ambiguity surrounding many of the issues the mods face is one of the reasons I think our general approach of private conversations with users around those issues is pretty well suited for purpose. The default position I (and I believe the other mods—based on the kind, caring, considered way I witness them behave on a daily basis—although I must stress that I am not entitled to speak for them and here am only representing myself) start from is trying to figure out where a person in coming from and understanding their perspective and in every case, my hope is to resolve issues through friendly, conversations that move towards common understanding and consensus. That doesn’t always work out, but it is always on offer; how anyone responds is their own responsibility.
What I find difficult about your comment karl_lew is that there is an implication in it the mods somehow lack the compassion or imaginative capacity to think about about the surrounding circumstances of individuals involved in situations that come up. At a personal level, of course there is an instinct to want to help ease when I have a sense of someone being troubled by something, but while that instinct may inform the attitude which I take into my mod activities, there is a very necessary, practical limit to how much this can be fed into the basic job of just dealing with the actual posts committed to the forum.
You commented that “Luisito did post in WaterCooler, and was thereby respectful of category in his post”, but the use of category was never raised as a problem; the issue at hand was that a combative, tit-for-tat exchange was persisted with despite very explicit reminders that such exchange is not acceptable. Luisito had a lot of scope for exploring the deep questions he may have wanted to, if he wanted to do so an a polite, civil way. It does not break any confidences to note he was told as much privately. The choices he made in response to this are a matter for him.
With all that said, I truly am gladdened to know he has found such a good friend in you.
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Aminah, you are an excellent moderator. Thank you for your time, consideration, compassion and deep patience. My concern wasn’t actually with your moderation, but with how ALL of our interactions as a community led to the rather puzzling outcome of ostracization. It was quite the jolt to open up my browser and see a gas-lit explosion. This was a lose-lose situation. Everybody lost.
SuttaCentral is a global site. We must learn to bridge cultures and accept alternate mindsets. Conflicts arise out of misunderstanding. Speech and action are interpreted out of context through the lens of our own mindsets.
I lived in Mexico for five years and Venezuela for three years. I have a place in my heart for these countries and their wonderful people. They welcomed my family with abundant grace and generosity. In fact they taught me much about feeling. To these cultures, our own inclination towards intellectual discourse is actually a cultural bias that can come across as cold and uninviting without any intention on our part. When we appeal to rationality alone, we leave feeling unacknowledged and trampled. This is the meaning of Garcia Lorcas quote. And this is why I would like to hear how Luis feels. I do not care about who was right or wrong. I do care how Luis feels.
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