DownwardSpiral - Usage of the term "retard"

Ban reason: I used the word „retard“ in Round 47520 and 47512 after previously beeing warned about the usage of that word.

Length of ban: 4320 minutes

Events leading to the ban: I couldn’t find the points in the replays where I used the word „retard“ or the word „retarded“, but I don’t doubt that i used it since it is rather common in my use of language to swear including the us of that term. I know I have been warned once before for using that word although that has been a couple of days or a week ago and I also don’t know the context I used it in back than. But the clear event that lead to the ban, is that I used it again. That’s for sure.

Reason the ban should be removed: In my opinion it’s is a understanding/cultural language problem since in my native language, wich is german, the term „retard“ or „retarded“ translates into „Behinderter“ / „behindert“ wich in germany is considered to be a regular insult/slur not worse than „stupid“ or „dumb“. Actually it is a bit more complex than that because „behindert“ is also, depending on context, not a slur at all. „Behindert“ is also directly translatable to „Disabled“. In any case it is not considered a racial slur in the german language compared to other obvious words concerning racism for example, wich is the reason its translation into english is rather prevalent in my use of slurs. I also understand that my use of language is rather vulgar overall compared to probably most peoples use of language, so if that’s the overarching problem I completely understand the ban. But I’d also like to argue that I do not use any other racial slurs in my language.

I just want to clarify that with the use of that word it is not my intention to be a racist dickhead towards disabled people. And I also understand your zero tolerance policy concerning such problems. I also believe that there might have been cases where I used the term to describe my own behavior in game with „i’m retarded“ or „i’m a retard“. It really is to my experience as a german speaker more a word akin to stupid or dumb and I have gotten so used to the usage of that word that it is somewhat hard for me to always keep in mind that i have to avoid it. In any case I’ll try harder to keep the word out of my vocabulary when speaking english in the future since i guess it is a lot worse in the context of that language. And if this doesn’t lead to an early unban I just wanted to clarify that the use of these words seriously is not intended by me to be as grave as an insult as a racial slur is, and I do understand if it does come across like that and in that case I am truly sorry. I intend to apply for the MRP server in the future so I don’t want to be seen as a racist piece of shit that’s best to be kept away from that experience.  

Sincerely

DownwardSpiral „Otto Motor“

I would recommend to stay away from the word in any context or usage as it has some automation on checks for its usage and is part of our zero tolerance rules.
The ban has ended now, so you can rejoin again.

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