[Noisebridge-discuss] Be Excellent to one another

[Meredith L. Patterson]

Al Billings wrote:
> I think you're projecting a bit, maybe due to oversensitivity.

Al, your privilege is showing, you might wanna go fix that.

> Some of us think there is a difference between a particular person  
> being thinskinned about the word "bro" given with no intention of harm

To you, Miah's being thinskinned. To Miah, it hurts. Which one of you is 
right? Maybe both of you, but the fact of the matter is that someone 
still found it hurtful.

IME/O, the compassionate response to "I find it hurtful when someone 
calls me 'bro'" is "I'm sorry for calling you something that hurt you, 
and won't do it in the future." That's it. Acknowledge their personhood 
and the validity of their feelings, apologise for your error (it's the 
same kind of "I'm sorry" as "I'm sorry for leaving my cat-hair-covered 
sweater on your backpack" to a person you didn't know was allergic), and 
avoid making the error from then on.

I had a long tangent here about assumptions often made in these kinds of 
situations, but decided we're all smart people here and there's no point 
my getting preachy.

--mlp