Comment on The Nature of Offense

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:15:47 GMT

One possible explanation for why I take offense at somebody making a racist comment to me (about other people/groups) is that I do so because I believe racist people are despicable (deserving to be among the lowest of the low in terms of status according to my ordering), and when the person implicitly assumes that I will take the racist remark positively, I equate that with them believing I am the sort of person I would despise and regard as low status. Under this interpretation, there is no raising of status. It is is still always related to some hint of being low status, either in terms of what other people think about my status or in terms of the implications on my self-judged status as a result of other people's remarks.

ETA: abbreviated version: we take offense at racist comments because they implicitly assume we are what we might regard as "ignoramus racists", and we regard ignoramus racists as having very low status.

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