America loves to throw around the phrase “freedom of speech.” But there is a very fine line between free speech and hate speech. I woke up this morning and read a Truthdig Article titled, “Stop Assuming the Boston Bomber is A Muslim.” This article reinforced my thoughts around the bombing and the pointing of fingers that many have already chosen to engage in. What was disheartening was the tweets by Erik Rush, a Black Conservative who stated that,” Muslims are evil. Let’s kill them all.”
This is very dangerous speech. What will happen if some overly patriotic, Islamophobic, or Xenophobic individual takes Erik Rush’s statement to heart and tries to seek revenge against Muslims?
Erik Rush is an African American. Did he not study history? Did he not realize that it was not too long ago that people were calling for the killings of African Americans? Lynchings were common place in America. Hate of Blacks as a whole was rampant. Now in 2013, we have a Black man taking on the title of oppressor and calling for the mass murders of Muslims. I am angry and ashamed. Not only because I am Black but because I am a Christian also. Erik Rush claims to stand up for Christian values, yet he is advocating murder??? I hope that the number of individuals who spew hate and claim to be Christians are a minority.
To care is to be human 