I was listening to the radio one night (at a time I’m not usually in the car) and I heard a man being interviewed about his research into hate crimes between 2000 and 2005. I caught only a snippet on the short drive between the store and my house on my way home from the Y, but it was enough to leave a mark. The radio station doesn’t have anything on the web site identifying the speaker, so I’m going by memory.
I’m paraphrasing what he said, but it was along these lines: An atmosphere of hate leads to more violence against people who are hated. The more hate we tolerate, in the form of speech and actions, it sends the message that it’s okay to hate, and those predisposed to act on their hatred will do so. I’m a gay man, he said, but an atmosphere of hate against other people on the basis of race or ethnicity (or perceived ethnicity) leads to more violence against gay people. It is as though a door gets open, and any kind of hate gets through. And this has been evidenced in an increase in hate crimes, as the FBI reported an increase in hate crimes in Washington State between 2006 and 2007. I realize violence against women isn’t reported as a hate crime, even though it is also subject to these forces — the more that distrust and hatred of women is tolerated, the more violence there is.
Listening, I thought, yes. The people who can say really awful things about fat people, but then would turn around and attack someone verbally for saying really awful things about someone from a minority group or women or gay people or Jews, are not realizing that they are opening that door to hate, and violence, against everyone. My personal beliefs don’t include the idea of evil as a force onto itself, rather, I believe each of us struggles with the power we have to do good or do harm (and our capacity to struggle with this can be impaired by numerous factors), but if anything is evil, speaking in hateful, violent terms about people different from oneself would fall in this category.
This is why hate speech is dangerous. The person doing the talking may be convinced that she or he would never undertake violence on the basis of what is being said, but that doesn’t mean others wouldn’t. I’m not advocating for censorship, but I do think it’s interesting what is and is not tolerated on airwaves and televisions and news sites, what gets called out and what gets ignored.
I scrutinize my own hatreds, my own “lumping togethers,” my own intolerances, in part for this very reason. If I want peace inside, I need to be peaceful. The feeling of hate is a protective one, but not an enlightened one.
I wrote the above about a week ago, and just today came across this nasty piece of work.
Angry Gray Rainbows 
There already IS a tax on fat people. It’s called job discrimination and depressed wages. HuffPo likes to think it’s all enlightened and accepting and shit, but all that goes completely out the window when they put up stuff about fat and autism. Although at least the anti-autism stuff doesn’t blame autistic people for not being neurotypical — nah, just their parents, and the evil angry god who turned all our brains inside out without their permission. (They pretty well ignore other disability/different ability issues too, but I’m sure that if you asked them about that, they’d say, “Oh noooo, we luuvvvs blind people in wheelchairs!” Bleah.)
And yeah, you pretty much hit on the very best reason to care about what happens to people in stigmatized groups other than one’s own.
HERE HERE! It is high time we amend the first amendment and criminalize all speech we find distasteful. I look forward to the day fat haters can be imprisoned for the crime of insult.
Tara the troll is still around! And you STILL lack originality and humor. Guess you never got that life I suggested you look for.
And for your information – since your reading comprehension is nil – there was no advocacy for censorship in the original post. Plus, the First Amendment does not protect the libel or slander of an individual or group.
The nice thing about free speech is that it’s a two way street. If you say something ignorant and hateful, I have the right to call you out on it.
Yeah, last I saw, the First Amendment didn’t read anything close to, “I get to say whatever I want about you, wherever and whenever I want to, even if it’s completely and demonstrably false and such falsehoods are ruinous to your reputation, and you have to bend over silently and take it.”
Also: Note the irony of Tara — whose goal in life appears to be earning banniation from every blog on the ‘sphere — having to have her comment specially approved in order for it to appear on this blog.
LOL… I was half asleep and skimming when I approved her. 😛
Now that you’ve referenced her, I shall let her comment be… cuz your reply is very nice.
People sue other people all the time for being lied about… “slander” anyone?
Brilliant post WRT2 and brilliant comment Meowser!!
I feel like I am constantly challenging my own thinking about others… I have a feeling that this will be a lifelong task, because (to some extent) this seems to be human nature.
Last night, I realized that I am somewhat grateful for my insane neighbors of another race. They are the only people of that race on my block… and wow… they are bad neighbors. The cops are regularly called on them for fighting in their yard or screaming matches. Last night, I called 911 for yet another fight… but it looked like a mini-riot… and it was scary.
I’m grateful for these neighbors, cuz when my mind goes somewhere about stereotyping ALL people of that race or thinking of those neighbors in terms of bad words…. I yet again remind myself that there are idiots in all races and ethnicities and these people aren’t representative of their race or anything else… except themselves.
Ironically, I think few experiences in my life have challenge my own racism than living a few houses down from this house of people, because they tend to flare up thoughts that I wish I didn’t have and so I spend a lot of time challenging myself and growing and learning…. and therefore, I suppose I am undoing a lot of dormant prejudice that was living somewhere in the back of my mind.
I agree that hate breeds hate. Hate tends to have its own feedback loop that just escalates and escalates… sigh… sometimes I feel that our culture is so hateful and I wonder if it stems ultimately from our tendency to self-hate and then just oversplash that self-loathing onto others…
Hi Everyone,
I have had an incredibly challenging week (that really doesn’t capture how hard it has been) and haven’t had much time on the computer, so I’m sorry I wasn’t around to respond (thank you, AGR, for keeping an eye on the comments!).
Yes, and the whole reading comprehension thing escapes some people, as I did say “I’m not advocating for censorship.”
We censor ourselves all of the time — we learn what is appropriate and inappropriate speech and we avoid inappropriate speech because it will alienate us from those we want contact with. Of course, this works both ways, as our speech can end up alienating or distancing us from those we dislike or even hate.
The people out there who claim we need to amplify the “consequences” of fatness by making it less socially acceptable ore more “expensive” are just so… unaware of history?