Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/18/racist-high-school-students-ex.html
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As a counter argument, there was enough information in the linked article for me to recognize immediately that it was egregious hate speech, nothing to do with the First Amendment, and therefore the swift expulsion of both students was absolutely the right call. If only more schools and businesses (and governments) acted this resolutely, that would be a huge step forward.
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And that’s where the First Amendment actually applies, and the inevitable lawsuits will come in, should they try.
Like Liz, I don’t think the ‘slippery slope’ concern is valid in this one particular instance.
Also:
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Racists? IN…
They were talking about this on my local public radio station yesterday…
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The First Amendment doesn’t have an exemption for hate speech, unless it is an immediate incitement to violence, which this doesn’t look like.
The First Amendment broadly has been held not to apply to public schools. (See the “Bong hits for Jesus” case). I’m sure this will turn into a conservative cause celebre’ but, generally, they’ve been the ones who don’t want it to apply to public schools.
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I connected with someone I felt bullied by recently. He or she had severe trauma at home and now is very pro human rights and I forgive them.
They, in turn were shocked when I pointed out what I endured without breaking bad.
I don’t know if they’d have become a successful productive adult if they’d been expelled.
Also it sucks but the 1A does protect racist speech. This causes a lot of headaches for high school principals across America.
I grew up as an autistic bullied weirdo post Columbine, constantly made to fear my reaction to bullying would end in my expulsion.
But I think when literal rapists, hazers, severe vandals etc are sometimes not even given detention expelling someone for an admittedly terrible rant is not optimal.
High schoolers are at the end of the day, children.
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No it doesn’t, because schools aren’t bound by the first amendment.
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Nothing about this “sucks,” except for the fact that two hateful teenagers thought a “good” way to get some attention would be to post themselves online saying racist shit because they thought they could do so with no negative consequences.
It’s an anomaly that they were wrong for once…
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At this time in high school I was 18. I could buy alcohol, be drafted, sign contracts and was held accountable as an adult when I was arrested for pot.
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While legally not adults, they are old enough and aware enough to understand abstract issues like racism, homophobia, misogyny, and the like… Much younger teens are able to do that, as well.
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Y’know, as Black folks in this country, we somehow never get to use the bullshit excuse that we’re “just kids:”
Weird how that works, huh?
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However awkward the School District’s words were, they expelled the dangerous kids to stop them from damaging other kids. That was a clear message in itself.
I’m glad to see that the commenters who said that the kids would not face any serious consequences because they are white were wrong. I hope those commenters feel encouraged by this - sometimes it’s good to be wrong.
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Tho’ there are rather a lot of us who consider that (far-right) SCOTUS decision to be seriously wrong.
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You can’t allow one group of students to threaten another group of students because of “freedom of speech”. The threatened group have a right to live without fear. These asshhole racist students threatened the safety of all the African American kids at the school by their actions and words. It’s clear that the videoers assumed that their friends at the school would agree with their nastiness, so this is not a one-off incident by a couple of bad apples - there’s a hateful racist group embedded in that school.
We know (and the black students at that school know) that those racist attitudes are at the root of the denial of rights and of violence against people of African descent. The expulsions won’t change the racist kids minds, but it will hopefully silence their friends and prevent racist attacks, if it’s clear the school will take action against them whether it’s on campus or off campus.
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If you read through the replies to that posting on twitter, you will see many comments that are complaining about reverse racism. They actually feel aggrieved because actual racism is called out, while their hurt feelings at being called racist (even if they are) are not being considered.
#Poor wipipo!
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Heaven forbid that negative actions should have negative consequences…
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There is no such thing as “reverse racism”. There’s only racism. It all has the same foundation in the debunked theory of race, no matter who is spreading it.
Racism crosses all racial categories, social classes, income and education levels.
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Not as a noun, but how about as a call to action:
Let’s reverse racism! #Reparations!
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I used to think that, too, but a friend told me that racism specifically refers to the whoever is on top of the power dynamic denigrating and hurting the ones who aren’t based on race. I think what you’re talking about might be ethnocentrism, the belief that ones own race is better than others, leading to judgements and attitudes that reflect that mindset. Their actions are the same as what we associate with racism, I don’t know, now I’m talking myself out of it. Maybe someone here knows better.
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