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When is it cultural appropriation and when is it just kids playing dress-up?
Last week on Offbeat Families, we ran a sponsored post for a family photographer featuring the image shown above. Within a day, we'd gotten two comments about it. The first very articulately raised...
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Ignore, delete, try not to engage: one more perspective on dealing with web hate
Image from teahousecomic.tumblr.com Great post from the folks at Teahouse, described as "A Gay Webcomic About Fancy Whores": Teahouse became way bigger than either of us ever expected it to. We had no...
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Online etymology: is "DERP" ableist?
Original photo by Flickr user Greeblie Oh, DERP. You ridiculous meme. You have replaced words like DUH, DOY, D'OH, and DER in the vernacular of millions, a quick four-letter word to say "That was...
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Liberal bullying: Privilege-checking and semantics-scolding as internet sport
Photo courtesy of fuckyeahsocialjusticesally.tumblr.com You might ask yourself, "Hmm, what's the biggest challenge the Offbeat Empire deals with on a daily basis?" You might ask yourself, "Is it...
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Offbeat Empire readers make me a better writer
Two years ago, I got an email in response to a post I wrote on Offbeat Home, I got over my liberal guilt and got a housekeeper, I got this complaint from a reader: I just wanted to comment more in a...
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Think twice before appointing yourself cultural appropriation police
Photo by Corinne Fudge Photography This week's most noteworthy comment thread on the Offbeat Empire was not an easy one, and it actually spans two weeks. You'll need a little backstory. Last week we...
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Cursing as celebration: why and how we swear on the Offbeat Empire
Photo by Clay Shonkwiler – CC BY 2.0 It came up again last week: After we linked this post, a vendor reader on Facebook flounced, informing us "The f bombs reduce your credibility. I swear too but not...
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Reader complaints that taught me things
By: Anthony Easton – CC BY 2.0 As y'all know, with a readership as large as the Offbeat Empire's, we get a fair number of reader complaints. Last week, we got a couple different reader complaints that...
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How to report a photo on any Offbeat Empire site that shouldn't be there
By: E Magnuson – CC BY 2.0 My editors work hard to ensure that we only use photos on the site that we have full permission and licensing to use. We've had solid attribution policies in place since...
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How to tell a publisher you're unhappy with their website (and actually get...
Photo by Thomas Hawk used by CC license. Over the past eight years, I've dealt with thousands of complaints from readers… ranging from the completely baffling to the hugely helpful. I've noticed a few...
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