COLUMN: Free speech is no excuse for bigotry and hate
My parents never taught me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all. When they sat me down to have this talk, as all parents do, they told me this instead: I have the ability to say whatever I like, thanks to our First Amendment right, but I will be held accountable for my actions.
It seems many individuals never received the same message I did.
I say this, in part, due to a terrorist attack on Parisian based satire magazine Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters – which left 12 dead and several critically wounded over various “satirical” cartoons which featured the Muslim prophet Mohammed.
Note how I put satirical in quotes, because I don’t consider racism, homophobia, and islamophobia to be rather funny. A quick Google search of “Charlie Hebdo racist” will bring back roughly nine million results in less than half a minute, and images of black women depicted as monkeys and sex slaves as welfare hungry animals grace your screen.
I don't want to be associated with anyone who associates thinly veiled prejudices as “free speech."
That being said, do slanderous and oppressive cartoons justify cold-blooded mass murder? Absolutely not.
How many more will die in the name of free speech before it is realized that “free speech” is not the ability to say whatever one wants and not be punished, but to be able to freely say an opinion without fear of an overbearing government.
As a result of the attacks last Wednesday, many satire magazines are rushing to make their cartoons more politically correct in an attempt to appease individuals who may show distaste for what they publish. Many other newspapers and magazines, however, are outraged at the papers trying to police their humor and satire, claiming that this will be the death of free speech. The New Yorker even went so far as to publish a cartoon that stated “Please enjoy this culturally, ethnically, religiously, and politically correct cartoon responsibly,” with no accompanying image.
The joke here is that everyone’s so sensitive that there’s nothing that won’t offend.
Here’s the thing: if you need to rely on “punch-down” tactics which berate minorities and perpetuate stereotypes to be funny, then you’re really not funny at all. You’re a bully.
Much of what was written in Charlie Hebdo was not free speech, it was hate speech. It no more represents the ideals that journalism stands for than ISIS represents all individuals who follow Islam.
My heart and thoughts go out for the family members and co-workers affected by the shootings at Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters. But I will also keep in my thoughts the future silent sufferers of the terrorist attacks – the Muslim communities which will further be stereotyped as terrorists for this while furiously apologizing for actions which were not their doing.
