Yah
know, over the past week or so there has been a whole bunch of going
on and on about racism. Cattle Rancher going off on people of color
while protesting the government trying to get his cattle off of
Welfare. Sports type person having a racially charged conversation
with his significant other. Hells, I am pretty sure you can find a
few others out there to add to the list without much effort. I'll
let you do that, I'm too lazy.
Now
the two sides of arguifying I have heard on these very sensitive
issues is as follows. Side one is “He oughta not have said that!”
and Side two is “He shouldn't be allowed to say that!” Now
anyone who has any sort of common sense should see the problems with
both of these statements. (No I don't mean my atrocious spelling and
grammar!) Let us cover each one in greater detail so see if you can
get the picture.
“He
oughta not have said that” is first on the list of...well two.
Well on the face of it, I can kind of agree with this one. Using the
Cattle Guy as the example, the Old Dude stood in front of a camera
and announced to the world his views on “Negros.” If this was
1914, I could see making those statements safely without any fear of
repercussions. Heck he might have gotten away unscathed if he had
used any word besides “Negro” or one of its derivatives.
However, as a general rule, most people both Black and White aren't
really comfortable hearing that word bandied about, especially by old
white people.
Still
he did say it and even doubled down on it later on when pressed on
the issue. So should he “oughta not said it?” Prolly not, but
get over it. He said it. It made him look even worse than before.
It added maybe an extra minute to his 15 minutes of fame. It is
done. Get over it. By ranting on and on about it, you are just
giving this guy free publicity. Trust me, him and his cattle aren't
really worth the time and effort.
Now
on to the most important side. I get from a huge majority of the
posts and responses that I have seen that a huge attitude is “He
shouldn't be allowed to say that.” A lot of sites are stressing
that what he said was “Hate Speech” and that people shouldn't be
allowed to talk like that because it might offend someone. I read
these statements and just kind of shake my head.
First
of all, in the case of the Cattle Dude, what he said wasn't really
any sort of hate speech. Was it a tad ignorant? Was it a trifle
Retro? Yes and yes, but it wasn't really hate speech. He didn't say
that Negros should be whipped or hung. He didn't advocate putting
them all back on plantations. (Well okay the “picking cotton”
thing may have been a bit much, but the guy is OLD and back in his
day, Everybody picked cotton. Lord knows my family did.) He merely
tried in his own semi-dementia sort of way to draw a comparison
between “Social Slavery” and Physical Slavery. So I don't really
think it can be qualified as Hate Speech, more of a kind of Confused
Speech.
Secondly
and most importantly, is this attitude that he shouldn't have been
allowed to say that. That somehow we should be able to muzzle and
tamp down anyone's opinion that we don't like or that we find
insulting. To me this is completely antithetical so the very
concepts our country was founded upon. FREEDOM OF SPEECH is not nor
has it ever been “Freedom of speech that isn't insulting or
annoying to me.” Everyone has the right under our laws to express
their opinions as vocally and publicly as they want. If they don't
like someone or something, they are allowed to write blogs, make
videos or smoke signals to express it. Despite what so many people
want to think, it really is that simple.
Course
that freedom is a double edged sword. You have the right to express
your opinion no matter how loathsome it may be to others. You can
publish your pamphlets (Wait do people still publish those?) and
stand on your soapbox to shout to the world what you think is right.
On the flip side of that freedom is the fact that you also have the
right to be ridiculed, poked fun at or ignored by people who realize
that you might just be a nutball. No one should ever have the power
to say, “Hey you can't say that” cause that is a very slippery
slope my friend. After all, everything everyone says is offensive to
someone somewhere in the world
As
an ending note, I have used Cattle Guy as my examples more than
Sports Guy mainly because I actually feel they are two separate
cases. Cattle Guy said his opinions out loud for all the world to
hear. Sports Guy said his words supposedly in private with someone
he supposedly trusted. Everyone has a public persona and a private
persona. We all have things we think or feel that we would never
express to the world at large. We keep our private thoughts and
feelings private and put on the public face whenever we are out and
about. Sports Guy may be the world's biggest bigot, but all that
matters to the world at large is the attitude and show he puts on for
the public.
In
the end, everyone has the right to say and feel the way they want to.
They are free to dislike whomever (whoever? Always get those two
mixed up.) they want. On the other hand, I have the right to mock
and crack on them whenever they do it. Ain't America Wonderful?