Racism Is Still Alive And Unwell

An old friend from High School marching band and Church days posted an interesting video on their Facebook profile last night, and although I left a comment their speaking my mind on the video, I feel I have to address the video a bit more, and where better to do so than right here?

First, a prefix: I'm only going to comment on the video itself. There is no way for me to know what this person's intentions were in posting the video, whether they saw the whole thing or whether they agreed with any or all of it. That's not the point at all here. The point I want to make is strictly about the video. I also will not be posting said video in this blog or linking to it or even giving enough description for you to find it on your own, although I'm sure my readers are smart enough to be able to do so if they choose.

Now then, a brief description of the video: It's a video from C-SPAN, so it had to have been from some hearing of some sort. It features an African-American gentleman railing on the white people of America, calling white people "the real n*****s" and calling for the total eradication of the "white man" as the only solution to end the slight against the black man. Pretty intense stuff, and disgustingly racist, which is the general point the creator of said video is trying to make. The video is then interrupted with a splash screen declaring that the man is spewing hate speech, the man talks some more, another splash screen asking why this man isn't in jail yet, more of the man talking, then a final splash screen asking "do you still think black people are your friends?"

At first, I watched this video thinking "this man is pretty disturbing." Any time I hear people calling for the eradication of another group of people, I get concerned. That's some scary shit, and we're seeing it against the LGBT community right now as well. But then they creator starts to eek in their little thoughts, and I have to take a step back. Is this man using hate speech against Anglo people? Yeah, that's pretty much the classic definition of hate speech. Should he be jailed for it? Well, no, not unless he acts upon his convictions and commits an actual crime… Should we mistrust all black people based on this one lunatic's opinion? Wait, what?… WTF just happened there!

The video uses this classic baiting trick to get people to agree with the creator: start with something easy we can agree with then tangle this sweet fruit of conformity in front of the viewer till they get roped into thinking the same hateful thoughts the creator was thinking. Truthfully, both the speaker and the editor are on a level of racism we rarely see. But the creator of this video has a few things majorly wrong in their perspective. I don't agree nor do I sympathize with the man in the video, but as far as I can see in this video, he's just a raving idiot, while the video editor is a raving idiot trying to distort reality to justify their own racism.

Let's start with the "he should be jailed for his words" argument. So, we can jail black people for speaking negatively of white people, but lets continue to allow the KKK to hang a cross in a public square in Cincinnati and allow South Carolina to fly the flag of the South over their state building. We can jail a black man for insinuating that the extermination of all Anglos is the only solution for a better world, but it's perfectly ok for preachers the world round to call for the "rehabilitation" or out right murder of LGBT folk. Like it or not, free speech exists for a reason. We cannot lock someone up simply for having an opinion we disagree with. Period. Once that person acts upon that hate, that's a different story, but if you want to lock up this black man for his opinion, you better damn well believe a shit ton of preachers and pastors will be going to jail as well. Just a thought.

And I would take on the overtly racist "still think black people like you" question, but I feel pretty comfortable that anyone reading this post can understand why exactly that question speaks miles to the intentions of the video creator. That, also in it's purest form, is racism. Fear without justification. Does that person speaking like me? Nope. Do black people like me? Those that know me do, unless of course we don't get along, then they don't, but I hardly think the color of my skin affects their opinion.

What this video does show, in a very ironic sense, is that the extremists of the world still exist and are still very vocal. On all sides of hate. What this video does show is that those that support hatred are still trying to manipulate more people to their cause through various means of sympathy baiting. What this video does show is that listening to hate, on either side of an issue, is like watching someone yell at themselves in a mirror. The opinions expressed in that video are sick. All of them. But the people expressing them have the right to say them. It's up to us as educated individuals to say something to these people and fight the bigoted opinions and to help shine light on these hurtful words when we see them so that others won't be sucked into their way of thinking. It's up to us to peel away the layers of misinformation to see if any truth lies in their bile. And ultimately, it's up to us to say to the world that we will not accept hate on any level. Let them speak their idiocy. At least then I'll know who's opinion can be trusted and who's cannot.