Our rights to free speech have come under fire of late and that should be of concern for all Americans. We are hearing terms we have never heard of before like “Hate Speech,” which is not defined by our Constitution. Exactly what is “Hate Speech,” and why is it a danger to our freedom?
Several months ago a comic was on a stage in California, that bastion of liberal theology, doing a stand-up routine. He was being heckled by some blacks in the audience and he responded angrily. Michael Richards was the comic, and he called the blacks, “niggers.” This started a firestorm that, like the California wildfires last year went completely out of control.
Someone in the club had a recording device and filmed the altercation. This recording made it onto the news. All of a sudden we have Civil Rights activists involved as Al Sharpdon and his ilk started yelling about his hate speech and use of a racial epitaph. The same epitaph that has been used as stock in trade by black comedians for years. I can’t imagine a Richard Pryor set that didn’t have him using nigger repeatedly.
Ah, but Richards was hurling invective at blacks in the audience. Don Rickles made his fortune by insulting audience members, people who shelled out hard earned money to sit in the audience hoping that he would pick them out for some insult. These are the types of things you expect in a comedy club setting, if you don’t like this type of thing, don’t go to the club. If you go to the club, and feel insulted, don’t go back. You do not have the right to infringe upon the comic’s material by recording it and handing it off to the news media.
While Sharpdon was demanding apologies and boycotts I am curious where that champion of individual rights the ACLU was while Richards was being subjected to an unauthorized video surveillance. Isn’t this the type of thing that they just live for? Seems to be a little hypocritical to me, that they would be silent on this issue. Maybe it is only when the issue is on their liberal radar that they stand up to defend the rights of the individual.
While I don’t agree with Richard’s outburst, I strongly support his right to use whatever language he chose to express his anger. Better to have invective flying across the room than to have bullets doing the same.
In the same time frame, we have another Hollywood type getting into trouble. Mel Gibson went out and got drunk, then got stopped while driving under the influence. It just so happened that the officer who stopped him was Jewish, and Mel took the opportunity to make some racial slurs against Jews. Again, not the smartest thing that could be done, but certainly his right to express his feelings. Let’s not forget either, that the man was drunk when the slurs were made. Since according to the law he was not capable of operating a vehicle safely, how can he be said to be making good decisions in his choice of words? He had just demonstrated the fact that his judgment was impaired by the fact he was driving when under the influence. In the words of the left, it wasn’t his fault.
These incidents were followed a bit later by some comments on a morning radio program by Don Imus. Don is paid to be edgy and to be controversial on the air, it is his stock in trade. Imus made a comment about the Rutgers women’s basketball team when he said they looked like a bunch of ‘nappy headed hos’. Now in the same sentence he talked about how he thought the girls on the Tennessee team they were playing were good looking, there were blacks on both teams.
In rushes Al Sharpdon to call for the firing of Imus, screaming ‘Racism!’ raising such a stink that NBC did terminate Don Imus for his remarks. Of course Don turned around and sued NBC because he had a contract where he was contractually obligated to be controversial. He won.
Now I’m not wild about Don’s humor, but it is his right to say what he wants without being labeled a racist by some self-righteous black activist. When we start bowing to the pressure brought to bear by some special interest, we come dangerously close to losing one of the freedoms this nation was built upon. What may even be worse is that these activists are trying to dictate our attitudes and morals. If we continue to allow it, how far will it go?
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