Again, the offense taken by someone is no reason to censor free expression. I am not white, but you’re right, none of my ancestors were either slave owners or slave in the United States — I happen to have family that was affected by the Asian Exclusion Act, as well as modern affirmative action that penalizes oppressed minorities for being too “good”. And as an outsider to the whole “who did what to who in the Civil War”, I have to say, asserting that we must censor our expression based on the lowest common denominator is frightening.
There was a time when it was painful for some people to see men kissing each other. There was a time when it was painful for some people to see mixed race couples. There was a time when it was painful for some people to see men with long hair. There was a time when it was painful for some people to see women in pants.
Are we really going to build a society based on forcing everyone to adhere to the most sensitive people in our midst? Right now, you seem to be in favor of the offended, but what happens when the offended are contrary to your view? Are you going to accept the same logic you’re proposing here when people want to censor you?
Make up a set of rules. If they still work when the arbitrary choices of who they apply to are chosen by your ideological enemies, then you’ve setup a good rule. If the application of the rule against you feels unjust, then it is a bad rule.
tl;dr — #FreeSpeechMatters
