I met a friend a few days ago I used to be very close with, havnt seen him in around 3 years. He has a female friend who I was enthusiastic to meet. He then said to me "he doesn't know how she is around Black/Asian people". I thought nothing of it initially, until today. Am I wrong to be offended? Shouldn't he know his friends attitude? Besides the point really, it shouldn't have even been said.
Responses (1)
First, it is not "be" offended. You have to "take" offense. If you let it go by then it has no effect.
He was trying to be helpful by conveying information that you might have wanted to know. After all, some people are prejudiced and you would want to know about that before you say certain things to them. Just for one example that I happen to know of, if you go to Germany you can be jailed for waving your hand a certain way. You would want to know that if you go there, right? It is not a matter of taking offense because somebody is telling you how to act. It is a matter of avoiding difficulties.
"conveying helpful information" yeah I guess telling me your friend might or might not be racist is very helpful indeed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_section_86a
There is a difference between "being" offended and "taking" offense. If a child told you what your friend told you, you would not take offense because children are not expected to be careful of what they say. So that proves my point: you are responsible for what offends you, not the person speaking. If someone physically strikes you, then you can say you have been offended. In any other case it is your choice.
Ok, well I'm not quite sure you understand the question properly. Why are you correcting the grammar? 2nd, if you let it go, it won't have any effect? Clearly, I initially let it go and it is clearly having an effect. I appreciate the time it took you to answer, unfortunately it's pretty irrelevant. Comparing it to "if you go to Germany you can be jailed for waving your hand a certain way" WTF are you smoking?