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OPINION
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Free speech hypocrisy
What do you think should be done to build more wealth in the Roxbury community?
By LEE A. DANIELS
This winter the media’s been ablaze with stories about racist, homophobic and sexist slurs being hurled this way and that by college students and other adults. Revealingly, those that have captured the most attention all involve black Americans as the targets of the racist speech or action: the members of the University of Oklahoma chapter of one prominent white fraternity singing a racist ditty that referenced lynching a black man; the sexist slur hurled against adolescent baseball star Mo’Ne Davis by a college baseball athlete; and the attempt by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of Texas to force that state to produce a license plate with their symbol, the Confederate Battle Flag, on it. This latest effort by Confederate sympathizers to obscure the racist rebellion’s ineradicable stain of “treason in the defense of slavery,” as one analyst wrote, has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the case last week. The controversies have provoked a growing volume of commentary and opinion columns. Most declared that, while offensive speech and ideas are despicable, they must be tolerated in the name of freedom of expression: so that society can benefit in the shortand long-term from the free flow of ideas. I’m a free-speech advocate myself. But in recent years, whenever these free-speech controversies have burst into the open, I’ve increasingly noticed some important things missing from the general run of commentary and opinion columns. For one thing, I don’t see them grappling with the question of “why” those who spout the slurs do so. For example, shouldn’t we be examining why a group of white college students, most of whom come from middle-class and uppermiddle-class families, would gleefully traffick in expressions of racism? And why a white college baseball player would feel the need to use a slur of sexual degeneracy against Mo’Ne Davis, the 14-year-old black American girl whose athletic prowess and off-the-field poise has won her well-deserved national attention? Why should any public entity sanction the lies Confederate sympathizers continue to spout? The Confederacy’s own documents — among them, the Confederate Constitution of 1861, and the individual ordinances of secession of each of the Confederate states — make clear its driving force was the maintenance and expansion of its slave empire. If states that have these revenue-generating vanity-plate programs must open them to Confederate sympathizers, must they also accept the requests of drivers who want plates bearing the flags of other systems of extraordinary evil — such as the Nazi flag, or the flag of ISIS — too? Part of what’s bothering me is that when these controversies explode, I don’t see the fierce condemnation of the values of the wrongdoers — and their parents, neighborhoods and entire racial group that’s standard procedure whenever some black youth has done something wrong. Instead, I see many free speech advocates rush right past any consideration of the pain the offensive words cause to loftily order the individual and the group targets of the hate speech to “ignore it” or “be better than” the bigots. In doing so, they deliberately ignore the reality that the old saying ‘sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you’ has always been only partially true. Black American history is replete with many tragic episodes of racist slurs used to provoke and sustain racist violence. And now, the virulent online expressions of hatred against women whom misogynists feel are too assertive underscore the fact that sometimes offensive speech isn’t just “expression.” Sometimes it’s used as a weapon to intimidate its target into silence. As I said, I’m a free speech advocate. But we ought to recognize that until a half-century ago, whites, North and South, united in using speech and other forms of expression to deprive Americans of color of their right to free speech and other markers of citizenship. That schizophrenic stance that marked most whites’ attitudes toward freedom of expression speech then suggests we today should simultaneously both accept in general terms the value of freedom of expression and yet also be prepared to challenge the claim that all offensive speech automatically deserves protection under its shield. And, in order to shed the taint of hypocrisy, free speech advocates ought to more thoroughly expose the bigots who hide behind that noble idea and discuss the damage their words do.
Lee A. Daniels is the author of Last Chance: The Political Threat to Black America (2008). His new collection of opinion columns, Race Forward: Facing America’s Racial Divide in 2014, is available at www.amazon.com
More cooperative enterprises. I think people are isolated and don’t realize how they can pool resources to build economic power.
Education. Education is the new currency for the world. If you have no education, you’re going nowhere in life.
Carmela Zakon
Donald
We have to create jobs and we have to own our own homes.
Kim Jane
Student Somerville
Business Owner Canton
Community Activist Roxbury
We need more homeownership and more economic development. These things contribute to wealth.
We have to have access to resources — primarily education. We need to own our own homes and remain in this community.
More opportunities and better-paying jobs for the people who live in the community.
Frank Williams
Stephona Stokes
Jerome Walker
Manager Roslindale
Barber Roxbury
ton Travel Basketball and Milton National Little League. The Cooperative Bank has office locations in Roslindale,
West Roxbury and Charlestown and specializes in commercial real estate and business lending throughout Massachusetts.
Administrator Roxbury
IN THE NEWS
MIGUEL ROSADO Miguel Rosado has joined The Cooperative Bank as Senior Vice President and Senior Commercial Lender. Previously, Rosado worked at several large commercial banks including US Trust and Citizens Bank. Most recently, he was a Commercial Lender at East Cambridge Savings Bank. In his new position, he will oversee Cooperative Bank’s Commercial Lending division. “I started in community banking and I’m excited to be back at a community bank,” says Rosado. “Community banks can have a major impact on local businesses and their growth.” “The Cooperative Bank has an outstanding reputation as a resource for local businesses we plan to expand our role in helping businesses thrive,” he said. Rosado and his wife Vanessa live in Milton with their two sons. He has been involved for many years with Milton’s youth sports programs including Mil-