Pennsylvania has a seriously racist digital billboard

You have a vehicle, that is hopefully insured, you don’t need heavy ordnance.
Get out, let the car do the heavy lifting.

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So I would pose the same question to you as I did to others: should the news simply not cover incidents of racism, because in your view, putting racism on the news begets more racism?

It seems to me that reporting a blatantly racist incident and spending the majority of the spot saying how racist and unacceptable it is isn’t exactly giving a white supremacist a platform. It’s saying that the community will not tolerate it.

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So racist bullshit is just fine, as long as it doesn’t explicitly incite violence? Oh, cool. Hey, bro? A call to action against “those people” is inherent to racist speech. But that isn’t quite so obvious to some people, people who haven’t been on the receiving end of that action for, oh, their entire lives. I’d love to live in a world where could all stand together and politely ask this fuckwit to take his sign down, after which he’d penitently do so. But I don’t live in that world.

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I was thinking goat.se

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The billboard is pretty beefy and behind a security fence if I recall correctly. I think my Honda Element would burst in flames before it even made it to the sign.

This is the sign.

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i believe that person committing the racist act shouldn’t get a platform to say anything. their actions are bad enough already.

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Bummer; just thinking outside the box was all.
Also: that is one shitty sign and reasoning for it.

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We need more of that.

Yes, it is a shitty sign that makes my blood boil every time. After awhile I just made myself look away when driving by. So much rage on a regular basis isn’t good for ones health. Still every so often I forget and read it before I remember not to read it. Then I spend the next hour in the car arguing with imaginary conservatives.

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That damage looks to me like a black block attack.

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Great. 15 miles from my hometown. It is possible that it’s not so much him being racist as being tone deaf. That area is really mono-cultured.

If I could set that sign on fire with my mind I would have done it 20 years ago.

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Considering the collective rage aimed at that sign I’m surprised it hasn’t spontaneously combusted yet.

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And the recommendation that seems popular isn’t to have the government shut him down, but something more like this:

ETA:

Did you have a particular category in mind? :see_no_evil:

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This is true. And so the guy can say whatever he wants, and people can treat him like an asshole, which is also their right, and so his idea that he was trying to bring about “unity” is just clueless.

If I were to talk to him in person I would politely ask how he thought saying this stuff would bring about unity, and what does “unity” mean? For example, does it mean we should support the President no matter who’s in office? Because conservatives have a way of talking about unity whenever there’s a Republican in the White House, but that magically disappears if it’s a Democrat. In other words, they seem to think “unity” means “unify with them.”

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…from government censorship. And here we go again…

Which leads naturally to questions about why the billboard owner is giving this bigot a platform (I’ll just assume he’s a bigot, too), and what consequences they both deserve (again, from the general public, not the state).

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I think I said that. Yes, from government censorship. As I said way up the thread a ways, that does not preclude social ostracism.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking a lot about the really intense pushback I got on my posts. It might make others who have replied to me feel better to know it bothered me a lot. I care about others. I care about others who are not like me. And I try to listen when people disagree with me and not always assume that I am right. I still believe passionately in the right of free speech, including the right of speech I disagree with strongly. But I also clearly see the hurt that this specific billboard (and by proxy, all the other symbols of racism it evoked) stirred up in many people here on the BBS, a place I would like to consider my community. I’m sorry to have underestimated that. I’m especially sorry if by underestimating your hurt that I contributed to it.

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Not in your first comment, which is the one I responded to and quoted. I’m glad you get the concept, but unfortunately a lot of scholars of free speech (especially the privileged white male Libertarian ones) who post on BB don’t understand what the First Amendment actually is for some reason. That cartoon helps avoid confusion and describe limits, as does this topic:

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It doesn’t make me “feel any better,” but if it prompted you to think outside your usual parameters, then that’s probably a good thing.

Too many people who have privilege seem to truly believe that only active (or “violent”) racism, bigotry and prejudice count; when it goes so much deeper than that.

This is worth sharing again, apologies if you’ve already seen it:

This is also worth a read;

http://www.timwise.org/2012/04/playing-the-friendship-card-white-lies-white-denial-and-the-reality-of-racism/

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Wait wait wait… so per the billboard… whites HAVE RIGHTS TOO?!

Why didn’t anyone tell me this!

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No wonder I felt so hopelessly oppressed until seeing that.

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