Why isn't racism illegal?

Freedom of speech doesn't allow you to yell "fire" in a theater. So it's not like you can legally say anything you want.

wut

Freedom of speech allows you to say what you want. We should stick by this

lol cuz than comedy central wouldnt be funny anymore

You can't arrest people for being racist. That basically trying to change who they are. Don't get me wrong racism is a bad thing but trying to make it illegal is too extreme.

Don't have to be white to be racist, even other races are racist to white people.

Simply being racist isn't a detriment to anyone's safety yelling fire in a theater is.

What about using racial slurs to provoke?

Cause some of the lawmakers are racists themselves?

@the_last_son_of_czarnia: thats called harassment

Freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

If you insult somebody (say you call a guy a "jerk"), do you want to fear being arrested?

Yes, it's the same thing. If you make an exception for one type of word, you open the door to everything else.

No, it should not be illegal. Nothing involving expression of opinions, no matter how wrong they are, should be illegal.

PS: No, I'm not saying that attacking somebody should be legal. I want to make that clear before my words get twisted.

Because it's a way of thinking, and as soon as you start arresting people for their beliefs, you start an even worse fire.

I think it's down to what the guidelines are for being racist. For example I know some African Americans consider being called "black" offensive and racist where as others don't. It's not as if racial abuse doesn't go unnoticed though in pretty much any work environment if an employee uses a racial slur they're usually either fined or fired

Why are there "hate crimes" then? If the law is to be impartial, why do they differentiate there and not when it comes to slurs?

-_- Really? You're comparing physical assaults to saying racial slurs?

No. I'm saying the law makes a note of race in the case of a hate crime, so it isn't as if it doesn't know racism exists. For the record, I believe a crime is a crime, no matter who it is against.

There will always be that one person keen to carry on the racism legacy. That's why the new generation are still racist. I've been bullied because I'm a halfcast and I'm pretty sure I'll stab someone with a pencil if it happened again, but that doesn't change what they said or if they'll say it again.

I'm sorry to hear that.

A hate crime isn't tied to race specifically there was recently a group of teenagers convicted and charged with hate crimes becausetl they attacked a girl because she was emo. You do have a fair point though one thing I will say there's a difference between insulting someone over who they are and hurting someone over who they are.

Because its ridiculous. The US has freedom of speech so we can say whatever we (except fire in a movie theater) want whether people like it or not. People say things we don't like or something offensive all the time but arresting them is extreme.

Same things applies to provoking. It all comes down to who hits first, not who started it. A part of freedom of speech is the right to offend people.

A better way to combat racism is to never teach it.

Shouting fire falsely in a theater is relatively simple. It can cause financial damage, takes place in a business and potentially endangers lives if there is panic. An elderly black guy seeing a huge Asian guy wearing blue and red bandana's on his belt with swords tattooed on his arms then walking across the road to be on the other side of the street - how is that illegal? It might be a little racist if the black guy thinks the Asian is in a kung fu maths gang but if its a huge Asian with swords on his arms and Crips and Bloods gang paraphernalia might just be the black man being cautious.

Certain types of hate speech are illegal, like when it can incite crowds to harm others based on skin color, but racism is a very broad topic, much like sexism and actually technically speaking, although racism is usually inferred and spoken about solely as a negative, that isn't always the case. A white man thinking most black people dance better than white people is a type of discrimination, but its usually not considered as negatively or frowned upon the same way as a white man thinking most black people steal cars better than white people. A black man thinking white people are more intelligent is different from a black person thinking more white people actually like Tupac more than black people. Sometimes its not so much racism as much as it is ignorance or misunderstanding.

Racism has shades. Its harder to legislate, enforce and rule on shades especially when it overlaps with a persons rights.

You can't make a mindset illegal, and people tend to speak out of their mindsets. I love the fact that people can call me a greedy kike, despite being a Jew. I don't love people who do, but I love that we have the right to say what we want, even if it does lead to that. When you start banning racism in speech, it's a slippery slope.

In short, because stupidity is legal.

Because Wayne Brady makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X.

Who else misses that show?

I miss it. Bought seasons one and two on DVD at a garage sale today.

Anyway, it doesn't have to be jail for people who violate it, even something as little as a fine would be nice. I hear its technically illegal to swear in public. Good luck enforcing that.

spits drink hahahahaha I miss the hell out of that show.

Pfft. If someone doesn't like me, I'll get over it. But I hated and still hate when people use derogatory terms in regards to race.

People have the right to be, Constitution and all.

If you're willing to forego the obvious obstacle, goodluck proving it in court.

Here's the thing about freedom of speech, if you want to be free to express your opinion then you have to also agree that those you don't agree with also have that freedom. I disagree with racism, I find it stupid and useless but everyone has the right to have their say even if its dumb.

Tell that to my grade school. Teachers didn't care.

The reason racism isn't illegal is probably due to the slippery slope it would put us on, first you illegalize racist speech maybe someone decides they should go ahead and make cussing illegal, then maybe they start just going after anything anyone finds offensive, then we end up all sanitized and once people start worrying about getting arrested for offending people they stop speaking out against bad things the government is doing which means that no one would be stopping from doing those things.

Basically its one of those things where you gotta take the good with the bad, or else we get subjected to something worse than being offended.

I think it will also be hard to prove in court. I mean why isn't affairs illegal?

Because you can't make stupidity illegal and actually freedom of speech does allow yo to yell fire in a theater if there in fact is a fire or you thought you smelled smoke

Where's George Carlin when you need him........

In heaven with God and all the saints... Oh wait.... Nyahahahahahahaha!

Freedom of speech is only as powerful as we choose to make it.

Exactly.

if racism is illegal then

bash or hate people beliefs should be illegal

bash or hate people who smoke should be illegal

bash or hate gay people should be illegal

and so on.

Here's the thing about freedom of speech, if you want to be free to express your opinion then you have to also agree that those you don't agree with also have that freedom.

now people who express an opinion also would like to agree ? .

@ssejllenrad: Someone got the joke......

Racist leaders should be in jail. The KKK or skinhead ones preach "We wanna kill and kick out all n*gg*rs and osamas out of amurica", or ones like Jesse Jackson who say "We need to kill all White people". So if death threats are illeagal, how exactly do they get away with it, esp. since their still civilians.

The downside of the first amendment.

Hahahahahahahaha

I want to believe this one.

Where did this even come from?

Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, some mexican dudes http://rense.com/general70/ana.htm. They claim not to judge people by their past or by a few but do the same things against whites. To be honest, I'm actually patriotic, but most of Southern U.S. used to belong to Mexico, there always illeagally going their, fair enough. As far as the other parts, stay out!

First amendment b!tches, you can be as rude as you want and there is nothing to be done about it. Indecency is protected by it :) , obscenity not so much though.

hate speech is part of freedom of speech/expression and its protected so long as it doesnt cause physical harm to someone else. once actions are acted upon those negative views it then becomes a hate crime and its no longer part of freedom of expression. you may not like it but to take it away means someone will decide what views are permitted and which are not ,effectively shutting you up unless wish to live inside a cage.

and its my own personal believe that a person aught to be free to express their love and or hate freely so long as it doesnt physically harm someone. "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins" .

This

And this.