12.04.2008

A Very Special Men's Bathroom

Unfortunate naming convention creates inadvertent racial slur at Bingamton University



This is almost unbelievable. DQ informs me of an odd situation at Binghamton University involving, of all things, a bathroom sign. The men's bathroom in a particular building, to be precise. It's all due to the unfortunate numbering convention used to make the sign:

So they have assigned room numbers to the bathrooms on this floor -- they are both part of room 00, with the women's room assigned letter G and the men's assigned letter K. Then, because they're on the ground floor of the building, all the room numbers down here are preceded by a G.

Put that crazy combination together and you get the ridiculous sign above—an ethnic slur on the men's bathroom door. When contacted about getting the sign replaced, the building administrator replied:

Hi [redacted], I honestly never noticed this until you pointed it out to
me. No one else has said anything to me so let's leave it for now.
If I get any other comments about it, I'll let the sign shop know. Thanks.

Pam

It's a little astounding. Did anyone look at this ridiculous sign before it was posted? I don't know, maybe this particular bathroom is actually intended for the gooks. John McCain will be pleased. DQ wonders if this would even be an issue if the sign was offensive to any other ethnic group. Me too.

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