A similar thing happens to me. I haven’t been assaulted thankfully but I’m Japanese and I get a lot of comments, insults and glares due to coronavirus (I don’t have it tho)… but even if I was Chinese, it’s still absolutely not ok.
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I don’t think it’s much of an opinion when you’re insulting them =/
" I like apples." Is an opinion
" I like apples but if you don’t you’re a tw*t." Isn’t an opinion anymore.
Okay so uh, I know the whole topic is about this but it’s My OpInIon 
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Yeah, I agree with you which is why I made this thread. I think that people need to realize that they can’t justify their racism by saying that “it’s their opinion” because as you said it’s not an opinion anymore. Unfortunately I see this happening over and over
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I’m so sorry 
Hopefully this will pass soon and people will forget about this. This just shows how far we are from equality and how, even in 2020, people can’t seem to accept the fact that we’re all the same
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Medium-Large Bump
There should be freedom of speech, yes, but just don’t use it to harm anyone 
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Do you think that racist speech or other kinds of hate speech should be protected under freedom of speech? Is there a good way to reconcile those two goals?
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Yes. They are and should be.
Don’t make speech illegal, we need to single these people out to socially ostracise them that’s what works. The N-word isn’t illegal, but people still don’t say it. For good reason
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Well, it won’t be much of a discussion without some voice presenting a different point of view…
I have to be honest, I don’t know what to make of it. News on the internet are notoriously distorted; in particular, they tend to over-simplify things and put them out of context. Whenever I hear a simple statement like that, I wonder whether its ‘an house owner who refused to rent an apartment to a student because he’s black’, or ‘people say that’s what he did, and why.’
I also hate to say it, but from my extensive experience in renting out rooms and flats, these people are right. Land estate is rented out on the basis of a contract between the owner and the tenant. The owner has all right to refuse to sign such a contract. ‘I don’t want you to live in my property’ is all reason they need. I’ve had it happen to me before, I’ve also seen my landlords refusing to sign a contract with a number of people - based on age, gender or other reasons that, in their experience, made them untrustworthy.
So, if that person did indeed refuse to lend real estate on the basis of the race - that’s despicable. It’s also perfectly legal, though. It’s their property, they get to choose who lives there or not. Otherwise, they’d have no way to manage and protect it - as well as their other tenants. If you ever had the bad luck of having horrible flat-mates, you’ll appreciate the landlord’s ability to make quick, arbitrary decisions.
Also, I refuse to judge the man without knowing the full context - which I do not, and will not unless I get to talk to him and the student in question. Which, let’s face it, isn’t going to happen 
Freedom of speech is one thing, but everyone has the right to fair judgement. Internet judgement, based on incomplete and/or distorted information, is anything but fair - yet it can affect lives. The litmus paper in these cases is always the question: ‘Would I want it to happen to me?’ Would you like to be judged by the public based on a simple statement like ‘She did X because Y’, by people who didn’t actually reach out to hear your side of the story?
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Indeed, it goes both ways. These bits actually provide very valid criticism of your stance - yet they are dismissed as ‘excusing racism’, ‘defending the racist’ and ‘gaslighting’. It completely deflects the message and tries to hide its real point: You make it about the racist, where in truth it’s about your behaviour.
‘It was ages ago’ and ‘they’ve changed’ are both extremely important points. In the current climate, there’s a new surge of judging people based on what they did in the past. People change, those who said these things are no longer there. You literally can’t reach them. They’re someone else now - and you’re trying to hold them responsible for something their younger selves did. This is not regulation; this is persecution.
And that’s why this criticism is so valid: Because one day, you will be persecuted the same way. Someone will dig out something you said on the internet: Here on Shanii, on twitter, facebook or somewhere else. They’ll take your words out of context, interpret them in their own way, then they’ll punish you for them - you, or someone you cherish.
It’ll be many years from now - several decades, perhaps. You’ll be a completely different person, living in different times. Maybe you’ll have a career, a family, or someone dependent on you. Maybe you’ll be weak or infirm, in a desperate need of help. Whatever you’re doing now will be ancient history. You’ll have a completely different life to deal with.
At that time, they will dig out what you said a decade earlier - and persecute you for it. They’ll stigmatise you, ostracise you, ruin your career prospects. They’ll turn the lives of everyone close to you into a living hell. All because you’ve said something when you were younger, and they find it unacceptable now.
Maybe you were wrong. Maybe you were young, stupid, less critical - let’s face it, everyone said something stupid at least once. Perhaps you were expected to say it at the time and get punished if you didn’t. Perhaps you didn’t mean it: You were being sarcastic or illustrating a point, rather than stating your opinion. Or perhaps you were right all along, but the people who are wrong will get the upper hand.
It won’t matter. No one will care. You said the words. You’ll have to pay.
And the worst part is: If you (or anyone else) will dare to raise in your defence, you will hear you’re ‘excusing the wrong thing’ and ‘gaslighting’. You will not be allowed to explain, provide context or demand any sort of justice. All defence will be taken as an admission of guilt.
That’s a scary vision, isn’t it? Unfortunately, every time you say something like that, you make it a bit more real. You’re reinforcing an idea it’s okay to persecute others as long as you’ve got a rightful excuse.
I don’t think you realise how many times this has happened in the past. My parents were persecuted in the exact same way. I was brought up with deep emotional scars just so I could avoid this sort of persecution. The only thing that changes is what’s considered the ‘rightful reason’ to persecute others. The pathological mechanism remains the same, always.
And mind, it doesn’t matter how ‘right’ you think you are right now. Everyone - EVERYONE - who persecutes others believes they are right.
I wish the activists stopped hiding behind accusations of ‘defending the abuser’ whenever someone is criticising what they do. You are not above reproach. Some things are fundamentally wrong, and two wrongs don’t make a right. If you want others to take criticism and self-reflect, start by setting up a right example. Accusing people for calling you out feeds the very behaviour you wish would stop.
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Closed due to inactivity