People Skills...

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by dblref
Rut, it is interesting to note that Juulie (who I think is white and married to a black man) never capitalized black or white, but you stated "Black official" and "white official". Is this one of the things that you "do on purpose"? It appears to be a put down.

Just for the record, I'm not married to a black man. My daughter is black, and she is adopted. My "borned" children are blonde haird and blue eyed.

The part about capitalizing and not-capitalizing is one thing about educated black English that whites may not understand, and your reaction to it "it appears to be a put down" proves my point. We whites simply don't always understand what is being said. Jeff doesn't do that because he wants to obfuscate, he's just trying to have a discussion. Just like you are, dblref.

I think we should lay the whole thing to rest. Jeff, could you trust me enough to agree that perhaps no one really meant that rules-knowledge is the only important thing, if I can talk Chuck and Tony into agreeing that perhaps you see value in both the rules-knowledge and the court presence? One of my dreams in life has been to be a mediator in race relation problems. Could I have the chance to practice here?