I have been completely baffled and befuddled over some of the recent news headlines. Two seemingly incongruous items that I will miraculously tie together into a pretty bow for you.
1. Halloween. For the past three years, I have chosen a fictional character for my Halloween costume. This year, I made a different choice - an individual who actually lived and breathed, not a figment of someone's imagination or creative embellishment. She was also of a different race than I.
Does that somehow make it inappropriate for me to assume her likeness? It appears that many would believe so. Why? Am I not honoring her and educating others about who she was and the contributions she made by appearing as her? Is it really demeaning to dress in the style of someone from a "culture" other than my own?
2. CEO Resignations. CEOs resign all the time, for a myriad of reasons. The Chief Executive Officer is always on the chopping block. Everything s/he says, everything s/he does, is always scrutinized and judged heavily. S/he is truly the face and ultimate target of the organization in which s/he leads.
Employees have a right to protest. They have a right to demand changes to better their rates of pay and benefits, their work conditions, their lives. But where do we draw the line? Is it true leadership to step down because you are being called to do so, either by your constituencies and/or those whom you serve? Perhaps it is. Perhaps it's not.
So, what of an executive leader who resigns due to insufficient evidence of attempting to create a culture of tolerance in the workplace? What is the responsibility of a leader at that level to eradicate bigotry, and quite practically, how do you change generations upon generations of inbred hostility toward others different from your own kind?
At what precise point in time does "free" speech become hateful? And what is the appropriate way to address that? "Practicing free speech does not merely entail the right to protest opinions you object to -- it also means acknowledging people's right to hold opinions in the first place."
Instead of lashing out angrily on social media, how about taking a moment to educate someone else? Instead of being so quick to judge a comment as racist or insensitive, how about redirecting the focus away from the anger and toward the often underlining reason for a hateful comment or insensitive gesture? Educate the intolerant. Be specific about why a particular statement is offensive. Often times, statements and actions regarded as racially or culturally insensitive come from a place of ignorance or simply laziness, not an evil heart.
My final question: Is "free" speech ever simply that? I would beg to differ. It always costs someone something.
