In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, is free speech really free?
I am often surprised – and in some respects, dismayed – when I hear about the “black first” to reach an office or a price, because it reflects the disparities and the opportunities of opportunities that still exist for blacks. On Monday, this surprise and dismay were reserved for the last black full -time columnist on the Washington Post opinion pages.
Karen Attiah, a journalist and award -winning professor, was reportedly licensed for a series of messages on Bluesky following the death of right -wing activist Charlie Kirk. The comments of Ms. Attiah focused on “political violence, the double racial standard and the apathy of America towards firearms”.
“As a columnist, I used my voice to defend freedom and democracy, challenge power and reflect on culture and politics with honesty and conviction,” wrote Ms. Attiah on her substitution. “Now I am silent – for doing my job.”
Why we wrote this
Journalists and teachers are one of those who lost their jobs for the remarks they made following the murder of Charlie Kirk last week. Our columnist was recalled a political silence that occurred over 60 years ago – the efforts of President Lyndon B. Johnson to calm Fannie Lou Hamer at the National Democrat Convention of 1964.
The dismissal of Attiah, as well as the rejection by MSNBC of Matthew Dowd and the dismissal of two professors of the Clemson University, is representative of the inconsistencies of sanctions for freedom of expression.
While the NFL teams memorized the life of Mr. Kirk via Jumbotron over the weekend, there were people who juxtaposed the controversial opinions of Mr. Kirk with the former quarter of the NFL, Colin Kaepernick, “taking a knee” to protest against police brutality almost a decade.
Even members of the Trump administration receive a return of flame for their point of view on the “hate speech”. The prosecutor General Pam Bondi was criticized for an interview with the podcast with Kate Miller, the wife of the deputy chief of staff of the White House, Stephen Miller, in which Ms. Bondi said: “We will target you absolutely, you will continue, if you target someone with a speech of hatred – and it is through the aisle.”
On Tuesday, after a growing reaction which included certain Republicans of Maga, she clarified her remarks in a written declaration in Axios, saying: “Freedom of expression is sacred in our country, and we will never bother this right.”
I remember a more sharp and political sinestation that occurred over 60 years ago – President Lyndon B. Johnson’s attempt to calm Fannie Lou Hamer at the 1964 National Democratic Convention. President Johnson feared that Mrs. Hamer’s commentary on violent abolition in the South losing the white voters of the South. He called an impromptu press conference to concentrate the national media on his words and not on Mrs. Hamer.
The attempt failed, and the words of Mrs. Hamer challenged a nation: “Does this America, the land of the Libres and the Maison du Courageux, where we have to sleep with our phones out of the hooks because our lives are threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?”
This is a question that leaves and inspires another: is freedom of expression really free?
The Washington Post Guild defends Ms. Attiah in a moment of great social and political upheavals: “The post not only ignored the standard disciplinary processes in a blatant way, but it also undermined her own mandate to be a champion of freedom of expression,” the guild wrote in a statement. “The right to speak freely is the ultimate personal freedom and the foundation of Karen’s career at 11 years old at the post.
“The post Guild stands with her and will continue to support her and defend her rights.”
History tells us that when black voices – various voices – are silenced, all marginalized groups suffer, even if these groups are perhaps the greatest champions of freedom.
When Mrs. Hamer made the Mississippi trek in Washington, it was the embodiment of one of her most recognizable quotes: “No one is free until everyone is free.” His was a trip to first -class citizenship, through the right to vote and other essential rights, which had been constantly refused. When she asked that the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was seated at the 1964 DNC, it was the pursuit of a demand from almost a century of private black Americans.
The dismissal by Clemson of two teachers, although threaded in his own story, is also an interesting case study.
“The University of Clemson unequivocally condemns all the expressions that approve, glorify or celebrate political violence,” the university noted in a statement. “The deeply inappropriate remarks made on social networks in response to the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk are reprehensible and do not reflect the values and principles of the university which define our university community.”
One of the most famous buildings of the University is Tillman Hall, named Ben Tillman, a white supremacist who participated in two racial riots in my original state of South Carolina: the massacres of Hamburg and Ellenton. Tillman would continue to reach the public service and play a leading role in the Constitutional Convention of the State of 1895, which transformed the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan and Lynch crowds into the type of policy that was born to Jim Crow.
“We, from the south, have never recognized the right of the Negro to govern white men, and we will never do it,” said Tillman sadly famous in 1900.
There is a link between Ms. Attiah, the actions of LBJ towards Mrs. Hamer, and the heritage of men like Tillman – the intimidation and the silence of black voices. This heritage has repercussions, especially given the anniversary of the political and physical violence of this week which cost the lives of four black girls in a birmingham, in Alabama, at the church on September 15, 1963.
It is the irony of the benefits on freedom of expression in the aftermath of the death of Mr. Kirk. The collective incapacity to be frank on the penchant of this country for political violence has made lives throughout the political spectrum, and always leaves persons deprived of their rights.
