Thomas Chatterton Williams Quotes
Being fired for bad performance or for having an alter ego that posts incredibly racist stuff is not cancel culture.
Williams, Thomas Chatterton. "Thomas Chatterton Williams on Race and Cancel Culture." The New Yorker, Condé Nast, 17 Jul. 2020.
The “remarks” were complaints to the legal authorities that her husband had been just lynched. The language of AP describing the event of the late 19th century was all the more remarkable since Ms. Turner was 8 months pregnant. She was hung upside down, and while still alive her belly was slit open. When the baby fell out and started to cry, one of the Valdosta citizens crushed its head with his boot heel. Then they doused her with gasoline and burned her alive. The mob then fired hundreds of shots into Turner's body. This quotation shows how even the national Associated Press syndicate felt it had to report a lynching, torture, infanticide amd murder without any moral or ethical commentary as if they were reporting a drought or an auto accident. The domination of Jim Crowe attitudes in the South and even parts of the North surpressed serious journalism regarding lynchings until Ida Wells {624106} made the breakthrough.
Singapore has three main ethnic groups, Malays—the indigenous people—Chinese, and Indians. The latter two groups have been more successful intellectually and commercially however the Malays are the largest group. There has been a history of resentment and discrimination as there has been in Malaysia and Indonesia. However, Singapore—under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew—has minimized it and kept a lid on overt conflict and antagonism. However, he has restricted freedom of the press and freedom of speech to eliminate incendiary triggering incidents.
The 1st Amendment is almost absolute in its protection of speech. However, ironically the Untied States has much less internecine conflict with minorities better off than the nations where hate speech is illegal and criminal.
As long as the bigotry took for form of speech, writing, and voting he was a defender even of anti-Semites. However, when that leads to violence or an infringement on other people’s rights, then the bigotry becomes criminal.
When called upon to resign by members of the town council, he refused on the grounds that he had a right to freely express is views of President Obama or anyone else. There was no impeachment statute at the time in Wolfeboro and people were not happy about waiting for the next election. There was much pressure brought to bear including some who boycotted the town. He resigned 2 monnths later.
Thomas Chatterton Williams (born 1981) is an American cultural critic and author. He is the author of the 2019 book Self-Portrait in Black and White and a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine.
