The use of racial stereotypes is alive every day in the U.S. The amount of segregation has obviously gone down a lot in the last 100 years, but it is still very prevalent. One man who has used racism as a way to make money is Johnny Rebel. In his songs he constantly uses racial slurs against African-Americans. According to Wikipedia his first album was released in 1971 but his most recent album was released in 2003. In 1971 there was a lot more racial tension than there is now, but his songs were 100% against black people and were purposely aimed to offend African-Americans. The use of racist language in music is still found in some rap songs, but not near as offensive and abundant as that of Johnny Rebel. Johnny Rebel uses something that many people make any argument should be a legal to profit from and make a living. Should someone be able to make a living off of saying racial sayings with music in the background? In Charles R. Lawrence III's article "On Racist Speech", Lawrence writes, "University officials who have formulated policies to respond to incidents of racial harassment have been characterized in the press as 'thought police'"(pg. 65). I realize that everyone has the right of thinking whatever they want. To call someone a thought police is just getting very defensive and shows that you have not done much thought on why racial speech should be tolerated. The first Amendment protects the freedom of speech, but has an exception of "fighting words"(pg. 65). This brings up a very large problem though because it is hard to categorize what is and isn't a racial fighting word. If there were a law to be passed that said that any face-to-face racial comments that are meant to initiate a fight is illegal it would be virtually impossible to prove that anyone was purposely trying to initiate a fight. The line that would have to be drawn on which words are fighting words and which words aren't fighting words would be a very fine line. They would have to constantly change the law to make the new racial slurs illegal. The task would be virtually impossible. On top of that if a police officer thought someone had said something that was a fighting word in the distance. The defendant can make an argument that they said a word that rhymed with that fighting word and it would be very hard to be 100% that the defendant is lying and try him in court. All in all the use of racial slurs is obviously immoral and in my opinion should not ever be used to purposely inflict psychological pain on anyone of any race. To make it illegal would be a next to impossible task so that is out of the picture. The only option left is to base what you should and shouldn't say off of your own moral compass. You should be able to use these racial slurs because you will end up having to pay the consequences for them later, whatever they might be: losing a friend, getting beat up or shot, not getting a job. Wherever you say these racial comments whether they be on twitter or in person, there will be people who see/hear them and there will be effects that come from you saying that.
