I would at the very least tell them to cover the shirt, even before I knew about the source of the meme, and probably USC-Minor at Competitive REL. The pre-meme content of the shirt is already plenty offensive.

Edited Alexandra Yang (March 5, 2015 10:55:22 PM)

Thank you, John, for your insightful and thorough response. In this present world where we have triggered a guilty-until-proven innocent tone and environment for our events, it is so important for leadership to be both sober and wise and to not allow the fear-mongering of the fringe to make things so toxic as to allow only mono-chromatic earth tones at our events. Given the excess of policing I've seen at some events since our new policy of being super careful about any and all possible offense, it is fast approaching the point where certain cards we have in some formats will have to be banned from events because they violate current thought policy.

On Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 11:50 AM, James Do Hung Lee
<forum-16663-2191@apps.magicjudges.org> wrote:
> In this present world where we have triggered a guilty-until-proven innocent
> tone and environment for our events, it is so important for leadership to be
> both sober and wise and to not allow the fear-mongering of the fringe to
> make things so toxic as to allow only mono-chromatic earth tones at our
> events.


Your environment might be all sunshine and flowers but not everyone's
is. Today I needed to ask people to pull their heads in on a public
facebook thread where one player was being called “B****” (but don't
worry it's his nickname as it's only 1 letter away from his name) and
another was talking about wanting to rub Narset all over his body.

There are plenty of communities that still need to shift their mind
set a long way before they even approach reasonable.

–
Gareth Pye
Level 2 MTG Judge, Melbourne, Australia
“Dear God, I would like to file a bug report”

I have to say, I think that telling someone to cover a shirt that expressly says “disregard females” - especially at an event celebrating an activity that has traditionally had problems including women - is a far cry from a thought police distopia where we only allow “mono-chromatic earth tones.” I don't get the reference this shirt is trying to make, but to me, it doesn't matter: the plain text of the shirt is sexist and exclusive of women.

It is my understanding that we, as a community, are working toward being actively inclusive of all races, genders, sexual orientations, etc. and that part of that push for inclusiveness means telling people that they should not engage in behavioral choices that exclude others. To me, that definitely includes shirts such as the one in question in this post as well as other's I've seen at tournaments saying things like, “Nice story babe. No get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich.” I'm not a woman and I haven't had the experience of trying to break into the Magic community as a woman, but I don't think it's a stretch to think that if a woman walked into her first Magic tournament and sat across from someone wearing a shirt with this meme printed on it, she might feel less than included.

Honestly, I'm much more likely to take issue with a player who has a shirt like this on than one that said “F**K” on it. While the latter is in poor taste and maybe not appropriate for a venue with a lot of kids, at least it isn't singling out a group of potential players and telling them they should be disregarded.

I understand that there is such a thing as going too far in trying to make the whole world perfect and in the process trampling over personality and making for a different kind of exclusivity. However, I don't think this shirt is there.

So where do you draw the line and how much is this affected by your own personal views? What if you're unknowingly dealing with other intersectional issues? With regards to the sexist hip-hop lyrics we are tangentially discussing:

Originally posted by some blog:

“While White people have attempted to make this incident about {slightly different issue} what it really reveals is their continued hatred for Black vernacular and their continuous attempt to police and modify Black language”

What if you have a couple of Players of Colour showing solidarity with a recent Ferguson-style event wearing inappropriate NWA lyrics expressing anti-police sentiment?

==

Anti-christian sentiments appear to be pretty acceptable these days, so will you or will you not complain about my black metal shirt showing a burning church? Is any text relevant? The country where the event is being held?

What if someone is wearing an “It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” t-shirt? Is that acceptable or unacceptable free speech?

Gareth Pye
before they even approach reasonable

Definitions of reasonable also vary by person: www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/14/oxford-university-press-warns-authors-not-to-write/ (That's also probably a rather cluelessly racist policy.)

A lot of situations like these will come down to the Judge's assessment of the situation at the time. We can't list out every word/t-shirt/slogan which is or is not acceptable. There are guidelines of course, and some things are clearer than others, but ultimately the Judge on the day will have to ask themselves “Do I think this is acceptable in THIS event in THIS store”. If yes, then carry on. If no, then penalise. If it's that potentially large grey area in the middle, perhaps discuss with the person, or another judge, or the TO.

Ultimately we want people to be able to come to Magic events and enjoy themselves.

I'd like to reiterate my earlier point: wearing a shirt does not meet the definition of USC-Minor.

Applying policy according to our documents is extremely important, even and especially when we think they should be otherwise.

Originally posted by Yonatan Kamensky:

I'd like to reiterate my earlier point: wearing a shirt does not meet the definition of USC-Minor.

Applying policy according to our documents is extremely important, even and especially when we think they should be otherwise.

In the annotated IPG, it states this as an example for USC-Minor:

“A player wears a “Cool story babe, now make me a sandwich” T-Shirt.”

Edited Erik Halverson (March 6, 2015 10:58:11 AM)

Erik, thank you for that correction :)

Originally posted by Gareth Pye:

and
another was talking about wanting to rub Narset all over his body.

There are plenty of communities that still need to shift their mind
set a long way before they even approach reasonable.

The PAX panel just now had a weird “I like scales on my men” comment about the new Sarkhan, made me think of this, maybe Wizards isn't setting the best example if that isn't considered reasonable.
(Edited, now with 10% more ambiguity!)

Edited Toby Hazes (March 7, 2015 12:41:05 AM)

Or, maybe they are setting an example that we shouldn't be so draconian
with worrying if some thing has a chance to offend a tiny portion of people.
On Mar 6, 2015 1:36 PM, “Toby Hazes” <forum-16663-b878@apps.magicjudges.org>
wrote:

This is one of the most wooly parts of the IPG and judges should largely be using their best judgement. The guidelines laid out by John Carter go a long way to showing a good thought process here. In a recent article I tried to stress that being proactive on this subject is important and it's our internal barometers that allow us to do so.

I would encourage any judges that see this sort of interaction as draconian or pandering to a minority to take a hard look at how their words and actions (or lack thereof) affect their community. Remember, creating a more positive atmosphere and making people feel welcome is something that will help your community grow and flourish; in order for this to happen, sometimes you have to confront unwanted behaviours.

> In the annotated IPG, it states this as an example:
>
> “A player wears a “Cool story babe, now make me a sandwich” T-Shirt.”


That example has been removed from the AIPG. Thank you for calling attention to it.

Nearly all practical examples of offensive/ questionable/pseudo offensive clothing can be handled with a variation of “I need you to cover that up”. If they don't, we have infractions for that.

We're supposed to be promoting a welcoming, inclusive environment.

It's not “pandering to a minority” to ask people not to go around telling others that they are inferior due to parts of their identity that they have no control over. It's doing our job as judges. And, frankly, it's being a decent human being.

Originally posted by Bryan Prillaman:

> In the annotated IPG, it states this as an example:
>
> “A player wears a “Cool story babe, now make me a sandwich” T-Shirt.”

That example has been removed from the AIPG. Thank you for calling attention to it.

If a spoken statement would be USC-Minor, then surely the same statement in a written form is also USC-Minor?

The fact that we'd generally handle it by having a quiet word with the player doesn't change that. If we heard a player using spoken language that qualified as USC-Minor when just chatting with their friends, then we'd probably also just have a quiet word rather than issue a penalty. But it is still USC, and can be handled as such if necessary.