Our nation seems to have commenced an important conversation about hate speech which, as we should understand, necessarily can lead to hateful action.
The latest catalyst for this discussion was ignited in Mar-a-Lago, when two haters showed up for dinner with Donald J. Trump. One of them is the rapper Kanye West; the other is Nick Fuentes, the notorious anti-Semitic denier of the Holocaust and white supremacist.
And so, the conversation has commenced.
President Biden has weighed in, calling on politicians of all stripes to condemn hate speech. Many of them have done as the president has asked. Some of them, tragically, have not. Is this where I can say that the silence is coming from the Republican Party side of the great divide? Well, I just did.
One of the silent types, of course, is the aforementioned Donald Trump. It’s now being reported, by the way, that the most recent GOP POTUS recently sent a letter of support to the family members of the treasonous 1/6 insurrectionists. Oh … but that’s another shameful story for another time.
I want to stick with the hate speech angle.
It is good that we have this talk among ourselves. We need to keep our eyes and ears wide open and understand the consequences of the kind of speech that comes from too many of us. Those consequences too often result in violence; and that violence, also too often, turns deadly. Recent incidents show what happens when madmen vent their hate against Latinos, against gay people, against Black people.
This conversation is worthwhile. It is constructive. May it lead to an awareness that forces us to ban this kind of language from our vocabularies.