Removing Hate from Geocaching

With the current racial turmoil at the forefront of the conversation in the US after the events in Charlottesville, VA and the president's reproachful response, I felt it necessary to show the inconsistencies the geocaching community has between it's mission of teaching and having fun, while also allowing caches at places many see as hateful.

Email to Central Texas Geocachers:

All --

You can read my forum post and below my email to Groundspeak regarding caches that involve the Confederacy.
I think it's wrong to let caches

• continue to use hate symbols like the Confederate flag; 

• encourage people to visit such monuments / parks / statues that may upset members of the community; and

• leave out of descriptions what makes such a geocache a fun learning experience for all

The geocaching community is far from inclusive or diverse. Please try to imagine your black friends and neighbors, new cachers of color being affronted with caches that implicitly promote hate.

This is a wonderful platform to promote healing, peace and unity; we need only speak up and speak out against hate within our community.

Thanks for reading,
strontium87

Email to Groundspeak (company that runs geocaching.com)

Note: I have not received any response as of 23 August:

I'm writing to report the first of MANY geocaches that use hateful / racial symbols like the Confederate flag. See the background image of this cache: https://coord.info/GCH4B0

But more importantly ask: Why should caches like these be allowed given the uprising against hate and the backlash to racial violence in the United States?

When is Groundspeak going to address specifically the conflict between a family-friendly, inclusive game for all and caches that implicitly promote white supremacy?

I urge Groundspeak to update its Term of Usage and send an email to all geocache.com users calling out in specific terms what hate speech / symbols / locations will NOT be allowed going forward. Possible rule changes could include:

• No usage of hateful symbols like the Confederate flag on the cache page

• Descriptions must include SPECIFIC context about why the Confederate-related place / monument / statue is reflective of Groundspeak's perspective of using geocaching as a teaching tool.

From Groundspeaks' TOS: 

Section 2. D. RESTRICTIONS paragraph vii

Upload, post, transmit or otherwise distribute (including by emailing us) any content that threatens or attacks others on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age, disability or disease; is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, profanity, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, embarrassing, harmful to minors; or is otherwise reasonably objectionable to any person or entity.

I eagerly await your reply,
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