IS ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION ALLOWABLE ON THESE FORUMS ?

[plantag]

An American, cajunsr1, and an English person, semeur, have both been banned from the forum http://collections.conceptbb.com/ on purely ethnic grounds. In the case of cajunsr1, he always provided a posting in English and automatically translated French, and other members made it clear that they understood him and very much welcomed him. In the case of semeur, his French was of quite a high standard offering no problems at all. What he wrote was mainly in fact to translate into better French what the Administrator was complaining about ! Also, like other members, he welcomed the presence of cajunsr1 .

They were told that the website was for "francophones" only, that is for French-speaking people, but they were writing in French, semeur only in French. So semeur was just being rejected because of his ethnic origins.

Is ethnic discrimination like this allowable ?

Plantag

[poopsicle567]

No ethnic discrimination is just another word for racist. Racism is not allowed.

[plantag]

I have just tried to comment on this on http://collections.conceptbb.com/
but I have been banned from using it too !
I am also English, but I would have written there in French.

Can we do anything about this ?
Does editboard or anyone have any overall control over these people, or can the Admin of this collections website continue to exclude people on what are, as poopsicle suggests, essentially racist grounds ? In the UK, this would be illegal.

It is one thing to have it in French, just as you might have a website in the USA in English , but surely you should not be banning Italian Americans or German Americans or Russian Americans provided they write in reasonably understandable English ? And would an American website ban English people or Japanese people writing in English? That is essentiallly what http://collections.conceptbb.com/ is doing here. It stinks .

Plantag

[cajunsr1]

bonjour PN,
as a french cajun american of many generations, i wonder why i was treated with so much disrespect by the administrator of the http://collections.conceptbb.com/ forum. i do believe this person to be a xenophobe or a racist. he says that french is the only language that is allowed on his site. but when i use my translated french/and english to speak to my cousins, many whom i know from another auction forum, it is not good enough for him. they understand the basic french, but he refuses to allow it. i was banned from the site. the other auction forum allowed this with no problems. this same person was also on this auction forum and complained with regularity about the same thing. i do not understand this hatred. not for someone of the same blood. i would hope that the administrators of this site can rectify this situation. this cannot be tolerated in our country, and must not be allowed if one from anywhere else uses an american site. this is not what my country stands for. thank you for listening.
cajunsr.
purple heart vietnam veteran, democrat, u.s. army retired
father of a decorated iraq veteran.

p.s.-this administrator worked for IBM switzerland where using and understanding english was mandatory. he says so in an email to PN. he made many statements on the other forum that he did not speak or understand english.

[semeur]

I, Semeur, am the same person as Plantag, I must confess. I have two email addresses, Plantag on a UK provider, and Semeuretc on a French one. My French is pretty fluent, but not perfect. I only used Semeur on http://collections.conceptbb.com/,
never Plantag (athough I tried to just before 7pm as described).

The reason I came on here as Plantag not as Semeur was that I thought at first the rather strong-willed Admin on http://collections.conceptbb.com/ had banned me completley as Semeur, and the equivalent email address, but now I have managed to get on here. Neither Semeur nor Plantag nor cajunsr1 (a completely different person, a Vietnam veteran in Tampa, Florida) can use the collections website however. That is certain.

I am English, but I find that the racial intolerance shown by this French Admin against your worthy American collector is quite disgraceful. I don't think American forums would discriminate against the French in this way, and the irony of it is that they are actually piggy-backed on an American website ! Will they go on getting away with this ?

I think most of the other members are normal people, but the Admin there has a strong prejudice against what he would no doubt call "Anglo-Saxons", and the fact that my friend cajunsr1 is in fact of Louisiana Cajun (and therefore French) ancestry makes no difference to him ! It's a strange old world, or in fact, there's nowt so queer as t'folks in it. as they say in northern England.

Semeur / Plantag

[semeur]

I have only just read what cajunsr1 has finally written here himself. He has been very frank, and yes, we do both know this person and his behaviour of old. Here is another irony: going back only a few generations, your Cajun's ancestors were actually speaking French in Louisiana (some of them tried it in France during the Second World War), but this Admin's ancestors were speaking German in Alsace. This may be of psychological interest .

However, whatever the history and the dramatis personae and the circumstances, I do not believe that it is fitting that a website based in either the United Kingdom or the United States in 2006 should be discriminating against people because of their ethnic orign like this.
Can anything be done to stop it, please ?

Plantag / Semeur

[Cornelia]

Hello.

I posted about your problem in the juridical section of the French support ( http://forum.forumactif.com ) and as soon as we'll get answers, we'll transmit you.

I let one of my teammates to do this job, because I will be away for a little whils.

[semeur]

Merci bien , t'es chouette.

Bonnes vacances.

Semeur

(I hope it is not forbidden to have written this in French, perhaps not perfect French. I would not want to risk expulsion --- ridiculous, isn't it ?)

[Cornelia]

It depends on the context. I'm French fron Québec, and Tristou (the admin) is French from France.

The topic is located here : http://forum.forumactif.com/viewtopic.forum?t=123169

[cajunsr1]

It depends on the context. I'm French fron Québec, and Tristou (the admin) is French from France.

The topic is located here : http://forum.forumactif.com/viewtopic.forum?t=123169

from the cajun's heart,
merci beaucoup. i would hope there is justice for this cajun cousin. we acadians have not forgotten our roots and our quebec cousins or our motherland as well. i am very proud to be french and american when it has not been popular in our country. i eat 'french' fries and french bread. my father's name was belizair. my name is guilliame/william. i may not speak my mother tongue fluently but i should not be faulted for this. i was an army brat as my father was in the army, then the air force for 28 years until his death. i lived in louisiana for only 2 times and did not learn much of the mother tongue except 6 months in high school. that was hardly time enough to master the french language. this is why i use a translator program. so with my appreciation, i wish you bonne fete et un joyeaux nouvelle. mon cousins.

amities, merci et a bientot,
cajunsr.

[Caihlem]

I lock this topic now to avoid flood.

If anyone wishes to know more, may they P.M me or Katt.
As soon as we have some news, we'll P.M the main interested (Cajunsr1, plantag and Semeur)