Where do you draw the line on hate speech?
August 28th, 2007 by max linsky in Elsewhat, NewsThis is a little old, but we wanted to mention it before it got even older. Last week, Tim Dutton, the executive director at SCOPE, wrote a guest column in the H-T about combating hate.
Here’s how it ends:
So what choice can I make that declares my unwillingness to settle and to accept this behavior?
I can choose to: Speak up when I hear slurs. Let people know that bias and hate are always unacceptable. Invite someone who does not look like me to share a meal. Talk about these crimes at the dinner or lunch table. Let people know how I feel. Write a letter to the local paper. Talk with my clergy about what faith-based organizations can do. Expect my elected officials to declare how these crimes fit in their view of this community and to do so publicly. Explore my own biases and learn from them.
Sounds simple. But taking that risk — putting yourself in front of that speech — is often too big for people to take. Thinking about it for just a few minutes, we can remember three recent instances when we heard a racist comment and said nothing. Often, it feels like quitting smoking — there are always excuses. It’s a coworker, the person’s drunk, whatever. Ultimately, the risk feels too high, so you stay quiet. Maybe talk about it with a friend afterwards — just so they know you know.
So what’s your tipping point? Where’s the line? What do you need to take that risk, to say something to that person in the next cubicle, that random guy at the bar, or, as Dutton wonders, in response to an attack on a family 20 miles away?
And what does it mean when you don’t?
August 28th, 2007 at 11:57 am
I try to accept the risks and take a stand whenever someone comes out in favor of The Yankees.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
this is a good point max: “there are always excuses. It’s a coworker, the person’s drunk, whatever. Ultimately, the risk feels too high, so you stay quiet.” but at the same time, we have to admit to ourselves that these excuses simply enable the problem of hate and racism. but what is the risk? saying something that no one with a sane mind can defend? is the risk really that bad? that’s what i don’t understand.
i don’t think it’s putting yourself in front of that speech so much as accepting the consequences of what that speech will mean. which i guess is sort of the same thing, but phrased a little differently. but i would rather be seen as P.C. than an implicit racist/bigot, which is really what we all do when we let these comments pass.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
i wasn’t trying to argue that the risk should be too high, i just think that’s just another excuse people, myself included, use to avoid the confrontation. with people i don’t care much about to start — a drunk at the bar, a random coworker — it’s easier to tell myself that engaging in that conversation is pointless.
which is what got me to write the post; dutton’s connection to community, putting that speech in the context of where you live, blew that particular rationalization of mine up.
in other news, yankees suck.