Colleagues,
Once again we have seen, in the midst of a simple e-conversation about sources for screen mesh, one colleague accosting another in e-public, including, this time, an inference to racism. As an archaeologist who has, face-to-face, been called a racist, without cause, over an actual disagreement about interpretations of research far more important than screen mesh, I can attest that there are few words that cut at the anthropologically-bent quite as deeply as "racist," particularly when thrown about by a colleague. Think for a moment how you might feel if accused you of, or even intimated of, racism by a professional colleague. In our profession, it's not just an issue of political correctness, is it?
Mr. Bennett is entirely correct in insisting that he--or any of us--be thoughtfully contacted off-list if another of us has a concern about the meaning or appearance of something he says on-list. Could he have gotten by without making reference to another country in describing the mesh he doesn't want to use? Sure. My guess is he won't do that again without assessing it's significance for the e-conversation. Did he need to be chastised e-publically by Mr. Myers, who said that the equation of China and "poor quality" is "bogus," after which he--Mr. Myers--admits that "China makes lots of cheap crap" (followed, interestingly, by a caveat--perhaps so as to appear, in common parlance, fair and balanced)? Emphatically, no.
In the last unfortunate, thoughtless, piddle-higher-on-the-tree match, we actually lost list members. That diminished the utility and fellowship of the list for the rest of us. For crying out loud, colleagues, we must think about what we say and why we say it before we say it. Doing otherwise can be personally and professionally damaging and certainly can be needlessly insulting. Just because I can doesn't mean I should.
Now, let's all get back to work,

Jeff

Jeffrey L. Boyer, RPA
Supervisory Archaeologist/Project Director
Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico

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"There comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure."  -- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer