AZspot AZspot

blue bits. red rocks.
Monday 23 August 2010

Americans talk about race when somebody like Dr. Laura transgresses the boundaries, when Henry Luis Gates reacts harshly to a police officer in his kitchen or when the Jena 6 are charged with attempted murder. We choose up sides and say our piece. I’m not sure if anything positive is accomplished by these occasional shouting matches beyond a fleeting opportunity to blow off a little steam. Dr. Laura is free to say pretty much anything she wants to say. Nobody is talking about filing a lawsuit. The First Amendment remains in full force. But we have the right to be offended by offensive talk. We are free to say what we will, but we’ve got to live with the consequences. I can’t remember a period in my adult life when so many people felt the need to engage in crude and intolerant rants. Things were worse in the late 50s and early 60s when I was a kid. But back then we had folks like Martin Luther King talking about a Beloved Community marked by compassion, mutual respect and radical inclusion. Hardly anyone talks that way in our brave new twenty-first-century world. That needs to change. Dr. Laura’s racial meltdown

28 notes

  1. theplaceholder reblogged this from azspot
  2. brasspistol reblogged this from azspot
  3. azspot posted this

A GNT creation ©2007–2011