Why is answercom culturally insensitive?

Answer 1

To begin, one might want to ask themselves why any website has to be culturally sensitive. People have said insensitive things for years, and the First Amendment even protects that. People used to have "thicker skins" and more ability to deal with things. That said, it is not wise to say things that users may find insulting.

Now, whether things are culturally sensitive or not are a matter of personal interpretation. What is insensitive to one person may mean something entirely different to another.

Onto the question itself, the leadership behind Answers tries to be as culturally sensitive as possible. Answers is an international corporation with offices all over the world. There are offices in places including the US, the UK, Israel, and China. Answers has a diverse user population, with users of all races, all genders, all religions, and all sexual preferences.

So if there is any insensitivity, then where is it coming from? It could be just a few vocal users who are not representative of the site as a whole. Of course, one can argue that allowing them to participate is a part of diversity. They have their own culture too. So forcing them to change to become more sensitive or accepting is to not be sensitive to their culture. We don't have to agree with everything that people of other cultures do, but we should understand what they do within the context of their culture and accept their right within that context to do what they do.