Quote:
Originally posted by IvySpice
To denounce the blackface Halloween costumes is not to denounce freedom of expression.
I don't believe that anyone has suggested putting anyone in jail because of their expression. Certainly these men had a First Amendment right to wear the clothes they wanted to wear, and we don't want to the government to prevent them from doing so. (As long as the expression is not a threat; threats are not covered by the First Amendment.)
Those of us who are denouncing these ignorant, cruel young men want, instead, for the world to hear a thousand antiracist voices for every racist voice. We want racists to know that these expressions will earn them the moral contempt of thinking people.
They have a right to wear blackface (or a white sheet); we have a right to condemn this choice, and the chooser, as racist and worthy of our disgust.
Ivy
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Exactly right, IvySpice. Everyone has a constitutional right to demonstrate his or her stupidity to the rest of the world. And the rest of us have a constitutional right to call them on it.
