Yeah they should definitely censor this, and then they should ban anyone who doesn’t like Stephen Colbert or anyone who has watched fox news in the last week. Are you effin kidding me?

Who cares? Don’t like it, don’t read Digg.

Problem solved.

The problem here proves that racism continues to be a major issue in this country. If they don’t use Digg, they will post elsewhere because that is the nature of a racist. Being an African American myself, I can use this type of stuff to motivate society to rid itself of racism. That is the issue. As long as we continue to ignore the issue, it will raise its ugly head somewhere else. Bringing down Digg and creating this post will not solve anything. If you really want to make a difference, take a stance against it. Don’t make posts asking for comments about it. I don’t blame Digg for what their users do. But I do have a problem with someone giving more fuel to the fire by asking for comments about this issue instead of doing something to help. TechCrunch is arguably the most popular blog in the blogsphere. I can’t understand why you guys would allow the same stuff to happen on your platform if you don’t agree with it. Stop giving racists a place to post would do more justice. I am now having mixed feelings about TechCrunch. I thought you guys were better than this.

Who is Ethan Kaplan and why is he raising synecdoche to the level of philosophy and business model?

It never cease to amaze me how these topics seem to evolve.

1. This is mostly a problem because the internet ttends to allow people tht are normlly hush in the public to free up their true opinion.

2. Some people are ignorant to what is real other than what they see on TV or hear in music.

3. This is a bigger problem than Digg. Tons of boards go on and rant various racist comments. To censor Digg isn;t the option.

4. Everything in rap is NOT a true representation of Black colture. The sooner those that seem to think that is the case the better. Consider you see thse rappers… maybe .5% of the black population. This is what you see more than any other form, so it’s easy to take that for what you see as black colture.

5. i’m actually suprised i read this topic on this site. I guess it was a way to point at Digg, but to me it seems to be a media ploy. What better way to strike up conversation around yourself than to use a specific word to name your jurassic findings.

No comment by me will change the problems in our society. I highly doubt these types of things will ever go away. Just beaware that just because you see it on tv or hear it in music, does not mean the use of the word is ok.

All you internet bad asses, we know the real truth. You are alone, likely staying with your parents, your right hand is your mate and you liekly get pucked in your town wherever you go. it’s nicew to have a virtual backbone, hy do what makes you feel better, but a word of advice… don’t let your words get you in trouble in the real world. But i’m sure you bitched out enough ties to know that on your own.

ANOTHER NON-STORY. HAPPENS ONCE A WEEK AT LEAST.

I don’t think Digg should be censoring anything other than illegal web pages (ie child pornography). Digg is simply a bookmarking service that allows users to also comment. It’s not up to Digg to censor it’s users, it’s up to the Digg users to choose not to be racist. Asking Digg to censor it’s users posts is almost like asking the police to arrest anyone who saying racist remarks in a public place.

Lanquage is very important… in raising children, growing a website, an industry or in keeping the peace. The IT industry (white male) ‘mindshare’ has adopted terms like “Black Listing” v “White Listing”, “White Papers”, “White Label” and so on. Revealing a “white supremacy” mindset, which appeals to and attracts others who use, or have, related color negative/racial lanquage, or beliefs. Its a classic case of “Institutional racism” feeding individual racism.

I often wonder… why not just say “Bad List” - “Good List”? IF that is what ‘you’ mean? Its not only more accurate, but requires ten fewer letters to type, display and transmit.

Digg is a joke, it is some sort of left wing site. Not that I really care, I just don’t like things that aren’t what they claim to be.

“left wing site”????

Your prejudice is showing through…

When I first looked at the title on the posting I thought it a little odd, to see the title. especially on a posting site dedicated to Technology.

I thought “hey maybe there has been a Dinosaur that was found in Niger, Africa”. That location actually exists where as the “racist” word itself does not allow me to think up a location or a specific person. Don’t get me wrong I am African American and I do listen to rap. But no matter how many times I hear the word, or see a person refer to another as that “racist” term, I take the high road and ignore it. It has no place in my mental. So yeah maybe… just maybe Digg named the Dinosaur after that place in Africa not the people.

Now the AIDs thing…that’s just plain insensitivity. Any one can contract and die of that disease. I think that is something people fail to realize, until it hits someone a little closer to home.

I am an African American (I prefer to just say ‘black’ — AA is a census categorization) and I founded a company called JoinSources. I read TechCrunch daily and I must say I am very pleased that this comment trail, while having some ignorant responses, has overall been very tasteful and full of lively debate. I thought I’d share some of my own thoughts on some things I have read.

I do believe the comment on on the dinosour becoming extinct from AIDS stemmed primarily from the fact that yes—there’s an AIDs epidemic in Africa. But I do also expect there could have been a slight hint of racial commentary in the posting as well.

As I have always seen in comment trails after articles that deal with race (on any site), the conversation often gets many people angry, many people offer bridges to explanation, and there are always the anonymous, racist messages.

I say leave them in. Why? Two reasons.

One. Free speech.

Secondly—why hide bigotry? Why hide racism? If there are people on digg, Techcrunch, or wherever who post racist, sexist or whatever type of comments, you should see them because when these types of comments are removed, it’s very easy to then pretend that bigotry isn’t prevalent. That it isn’t there. And anyone who calls a ’spade a spade’ when it comes to a racilly motivated comment is just a paranoid, overly sensitive, and politically correct person.

When these racial innuendo messages get through the media filter, as the Web and new media have enabled, we act suprised that anyone thinks the racism exists, even though many of us, black and white and brown have heard worse comments from grandparents at dinner tables, frat brothers at house parties, and maybe even from our own lips.

–

Since the new thing on the Web is the social graph, I’d like to use it to answer the question about why you see so few African Americans at tech events.

One reason is there aren’t as many of us in this field of course.

There’s two other factors. One, many are invite only, and if not you need to know someone to get a ticket. And two, we all know the social graph is about reaching out to the people we know, and them doing the same until this graph is created. That’s understandable—why try to make new friends every day just because?

In college, did you notice that the groups usually form around race? It’s not about exclusion, but acceptance. The Asian kids hang with Persians because as young freshamn they seek early acceptance and those like them are most apt to give it. Blacks do the same. Hispanics do the same. And yes—white people do the same. Not true? I’d like to know which of my white counterparts on this site came to campus and said, “I think I am going to go look for the black people to hang out with.”

If your personal social graph includes 0 blacks, or 1% blacks, or one black guy period, and you have connections and influence and information that get you into these events—then how do you think the Web 2.0 conference or Techcrunch 40 are going to have more blacks? Let’s be honest. How many blacks do the readers on here socialize with regularly?

Hell, I’d love to get a write up somewhere. I’d love to get a review somehwhere. But I recognize the social graph is at play here, and I have to try and get mapped on it. That means I have to work just a hard as my white counterparts who are in the lobbies at these events trying to get into those conferences—

I do just wish I wasn’t the only one trying.

Only way to stop this is to have people use true identity.

@ 62

C’mon. after an hour on digg, I feel like I just finished my re education term.

Digg is not the flow of free ideas or thoughts, its where one group of opinions diggs down the other, thats all. The majority of political post on digg are left wing and sold as fact.

The N word is a bad word only in the USA and don’t expect the rest of the world to respect that.

Make users expose their identity
Would have been better to ignore shit like this. This Post gave it lot of exposure-

So, let’s see, another Duncan TechCrunch post, and it fails on so many fronts: demonstration of a complete lack of a sense of humor while at the same time revealing some potential underlying racism of his own (the dinosaur dying of AIDS “joke” is a reference to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, particularly Niger — at least that’s where my mind went); complete lack of any *real* research into the facts at hand (the HDDVD encryption key is *not* censored on Digg anymore); a misunderstanding of what censorship is (hint, it’s when the government does it — through force of law, essentially — not when a private entity chooses to edit itself or its consenting participants); and no substantive discussion of the underlying social issue of anonymity (which would actually make a post like this interesting, if not still off-topic for this blog).

And what’s with the constant notion (more in the mainstream then in this circle, to be sure) that the *existence* of vile or unpleasant thought/content is bad and should be prevented? Is it not sufficient to simply protect the consumer (which Digg does in its commenting system) or is it just easier to *prohibit* the producer?

Thats quite informative article,thanks for it

Racist people sucks….

Racists as so desperately sad that it’s probably not worth doing anything. Screw ‘em.

Digg is crap. It’s the worst SB site out there. http://smartstartup.typepad.co.....kmark.html

Digg doesn’t have real control over the commenting system. Yes, they can police to some extent, but it would be far too great a task to ask a commercial company to undertake with any real efficiency. Perhaps they should remove such comments once someone reports them (e.g. this post), but the stupidity of some commenters isn’t the natural responsibility of Digg, and the masses of its users I am sure will join in the derision of those comments which reflect such viewpoints.

I think this is a slow-news day.

Same here. This post looks like a tabloid article.

Digg is old news! New sites like Conservative Pulse will give people a way to see real and honest news without the liberal filter.

http://www.conservativepulse.com

@Darren
“one reason I don’t use digg anymore is the commentors. I like to join and discuss stuff but its the wild west over there. They need moderators just for the comments. Lets face it you can say what you want over there with no consequence.”

Let me highlight this, “you can say what you want over there with no consequence.” EXACTLY!!! That is the reason I use digg. They were wrong to censor the HDDVD key, and if they censor this they’ll be wrong too. The AIDS comment wasn’t even the funniest or worst one on the page. The other ones actually are funny, and they’re no worse than an episode of the Chapelle show. The grape drink comments are in fact a reference to the Chapelle show, hosted by one of the best comedians of all time imo.

I have a friend called Nigel, we call him Nige. I sometimes get a little niggle in my knees if I wear the wrong shoes. Really, the main point raised by the Nigersaurus ‘controversy’ is that people lack basic word decoding skills if they can’t distinguish between Niger and Nigger, they’re probably the same sort of people who type ‘loose’ when they mean ‘lose’.
Or maybe I am misinterpreting, perhaps they are making the link that they both come from the same root and they are tryingto make a sophisticated play on words? Nah….. they’re just stupid, uneducated, racist hicks.

Thanks TC for extracting and highlighting the worst elements of the Digg thread. It saves me from going through all the buried comments.

Duncan, this thread was painful mate. Not for the obvious reasons either, well, not all of the obvious reasons.

1. Digg comments are the cesspool of the Internet, or at the very least a fiefdom in a much larger cesspool. You know this, I know this, everyone knows this. Dumpster diving for comments that might need to be moderated seems a little much, doesn’t it?

2. Racism discussions on the Internet - A Reader’s Guide

a. 20% - “That wasn’t racist! Anyone who thinks so is just an idiot!”

b. 40% - “It is what it is, that’s not the point. Freedom of speech should be protected.”

c. 20% - “Racism is real! Why can’t you [insert broad demographic] get it!”

d. 20% - “Slow news day [Journalist]?”

Same thing, different day.

3. There are plenty of problems in the world, some of them have to do with discrimination (which affects quite a few races, creeds and colors). Does it help anyone at all to focus any attention on what might be the most insignificant of all possible incarnations of this?

I think I will take routes “b and d” and assume that nothing really came to your attention today in tech news so you decided to get a chuckle out of watching the thread that would obviously arise over this post.

In the off chances that you are looking for real input on the subject then I would say that it is almost always best to allow silly people to expose themselves. Strict moderation (especially in ambiguous cases like this one) doesn’t accomplish anything.

Cheers.

Duncan, seriously. You have the worst judgment of all the writers on Techcrunch. It would be much better to not fill your 3 posts a day quota when there’s nothing to blog about rather than post non-stories like this. Please take a holiday, or arrange with MA to approve your posts for you.

I’ve had three accounts banned with digg and I’m done using their site. I present the conservative view point amongst the sea of liberal loudmouthing and I wouldn’t think for a second that it couldn’t be for that very reason.

Don

My first post here, long time reader, just to say that there really is something profoundly irritating about 95% of the posts of Duncan Riley. I think the reason most of his selections are so obnoxious is because he knows they don’t appeal to most TechCrunch readers, but posts them anyway. Provocative only works when there is some appeal, this guy is taking liberties with his position as a writer here. Please take away his mic.

Give me a break! White people finally show their true colors, and hide behind their computer. We’ve all know that whites are racist, it’s in their blood. They will never change, so we should never let our hard down. This is why I am for a total war of Latinos and blacks VS. whites. I am tired of this and will be more then happy to go to war. Actually I look foward to it. Anyone want to join me?

This is why I think Latinos and Blacks should join forces. We make up about 35% of the population and we are the majority in the big cities! Who gives a fuck about the white trash/hicks that live in shit hole Mid West and the South? The only way to get anything done is with violence. All that peaceful resistance is bullshit. It’s time and I am more then ready.

@ Antonio
LOL (well at least a wry smile) nice one.

I am so sick of digg! About 5% of the stuff that gets dugg is readable.

Bloobeard, what are you laughing at? What? We are suppose to sit back and wait on the master to fuck us over? Please! When they day comes, I would be running aways from me if I was you!

Your time is over, demographics have changed.

You people are so ridiculous.

I did’nt know a bunch of inbreed, snaggled-toothed, 3rd grade educated racist freaks could even operate a web browser.

Let the people speak. Racist idiots will betray themselves as such (idiots), and there is no better argument against racists than the ignorant words they themselves provide.

Fuck all the nigger haters.

Hilarity.

Are you just becoming familiar with “Digg” and any other message boards and their anonymous idiots posting? It’s a big world!

Digg is peer-reviewed, and that’s how it should stay. Leave it up to the users to decide what to bury. The fact that a comment has been buried should warn you that it might not be appropriate or offensive. If you decide to click it and are offended, Digg is not to blame.

If you don’t like what you find on a peer-reviewed site, find your news somewhere else. It’s like watching Cinemax at 2am and being offended when you find some adult content. Use some judgement and you’ll be ok.

I think this has been ridiculously drawn out and exaggerated, first of all if you have ever read digg comments…this is nothing new. I don’t think the article needs to be censored because of childish jokes regarding the coincidental sounding name of the dinosaur. Remember it was found in NIGER (Yes Nigh-Jer) so the name is not anyway intentionally racist and this would be political correctness gone ridiculously far.

Antonio, You are a pathetic racist piece of shit.

A perfect example that racists come in ALL colors.

Jon, you fucken cracker. Listen here… You and your people have a long history of been animals against minorities. You fucken savages! The Native Americans, The Chinese, The Blacks, The Filipinos, and the list goes on. Things will change, in my lifetime. I promise you that much!

Hilarity

Don’t feed the trolls, Jon.

I don’t understand how anyone could even think censorship would be a solution. We say “don’t blame the mirror if your face is hideous”. The racism itself is a problem - not that people verbally express their racism. That’s just a mirror of their minds - and racism in their minds is not going to disappear by breaking the mirror - on the contrary I think if people are not allowed to express it verbally maybe they will find some other way… probably much more dangerous. If you wanna get rid of racism you have to change people’s minds. Censorship is just hiding the real problem.

We are not idiots. We don’t have to be protected from ‘bad ideas’. We have right to make our opinion - so we have right to see other people’s opinions - and if you disagree with some opinion - argue, convince us. Don’t hide the other opinion exists.

I think censorship is always based on assumption that average people are not able to think or make moral decisions and someone, some uber-man, has to decide which ideas are bad and should be forbidden. That’s real fascism - not stupid racist jokes.