[PEN-L:10625] RE: Countering bigoted rightwing attack on Free Speech

[Interhemispheric Resource Center]

Dear Mr Craven,

I applaud your felicitous comments wholeheartedly!

Tim McGivern


At 12:42 PM 9/2/99 -0700, you wrote:
>
>
>James Craven
>Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd.
>Vancouver, WA. 98663
>(360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5
>*My Employer Has No Association With My Private/Protected
>Opinion*
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Nathan Newman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Thursday, September 02, 1999 11:59 AM
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [PEN-L:10598] Countering bigoted rightwing attack on Free
>Speech
>
>
>
>PLEASE FORWARD
>
>Folks,
>
>People may of caught the nasty David Horowitz column in Salon attacking the
>NAACP's lawsuits against the gun lobby where he argued that black leaders
>should "[abandon] the ludicrous claim that white America and firearms
>manufacturers are the cause of the problems afflicting African-Americans. It
>would mean taking responsibility for their own communities instead."  See
>http://www.salon.com/news/col/horo/1999/08/16/naacp/index.html
>
>Jack White, a black TIME magazine columnist, wrote a rather restrained
>response where he dared to describe Horowitz's screed as being that of a
>"bigot."  See
>http://www.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,29787,00.html
>
>Well, Horowitz - the architect of "free speech" campaigns against campus
>speech codes against racism - has now decided that words hurt as much as
>sticks and stones.  He is now rallying the rightwing to pressure TIME to end
>any flirtations with actually allowing anti-racist voices in their magazine.
>
>Read the following whining letter from Horowitz, contact the people he
>mentions, and tell them you support the free speech rights of Jack White to
>label bigotry when he sees it.  And tell David Talbot of Salon that he may
>enjoy providing a provocative range of voices in his online magazine, but he
>should rethink employing people like Horowitz who seek to silence the voices
>at other magazines.
>
>Let Horowitz ( a public personality for purposes of legal tests of libel and
>slander) just try to prove spreading verbally (slander) or in writing
>(libel) 1) intentional untruths known to be untruths and/or 2) untruths with
>careless disregard for facts (easily obtainable facts that clearly reveal
>untruths as untruths); 3) concrete damages; 4) malice 5) opinion not clearly
>labelled as opinion.
>
>What do you call someone who writes: "Guns don't kill Blacks, Blacks do"?
>What do you call someone who writes that racism doesn't exist in America on
>any institutionalized level? What do you call someone who writes/says as
>"dysfunction" in African-American communities is due solely to a
>dysfunctional culture with dysfunctional values about which non-Blacks have
>little if anything to do? (the old racist tautology: "backward because they
>are backward") What do you call someone who says nothing about the plethora
>of anti-Black, Anti-Jewish, Anti-Indian, Anti-Hispanic hate groups armed and
>openly calling for a "HoRaWa" (Holy Race War)? What do you call someone who
>ignores the most notable examples of gun violence--white kids and racists
>killing other whites and targeted minorities? What do you call someone who
>deiliberately ignores the numerous examples of African-Americans being
>racially profiled and killed by police and by racist thugs? What do you call
>someone who deliberately ignores the long-lasting and thoroughly
>documentable deleterious effects of institutionalized slavery and racism on
>individuals and families and whole groups?
>
>A bigot. A racist. A racist apologist. A whore and toady of the racist
>privileged. A punk. An opportunist. Add here: ...
>
>Anyone remember "Marx and Modern Economics", "Shakespeare: An Existential
>View", "The Free World Colossus", "The Corporations and the Cold War" and
>"Ramparts"? He was obviously playing a "market niche" then and is playing
>another one now. This is an example of what happens when "Radical" is but a
>market niche rather than a deeply-felt/held ongoing commitment; so easy to
>go from "ultra-left" to "ultra-right" because the focus was on the "ultra",
>the self, the narcissism, the know-it-all hubris and the market niche all
>along.
>
>This is my protected OPINION. Horowitz is free to express his, and I and
>others are free to express our own considered opinions about the essence of
>the message and the messenger. The fact that he whines so much, shows what a
>thoroughly disgusting opportunist and weak toady/sycophant he truly is.
>
>Jim Craven
>
>
>