Came across this post while reading this rather new blog and figured I would link here since it hits on a couple topics I've been eyeing over the past few months.
The first being of course Kwanzaa, which for all intents and purposes is nothing like what everyone thinks it is. In fact I can't believe to what extent mainstream America has been duped by this "celebration." The above post describes the origin of Kwanzaa better than I can but needless to say it is yet another "separate us from the white-man" idea that has suddenly taken hold again in the African American community after what seemed like a long time without. And Charlotte brings up a very good point in describing the reactions of immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa towards this celebration. Trying to point something like this out though has led to the second topic. Censorship.
Lately I have been noticing an increasing misunderstanding of the First Amendment among mainstream media in which they seek to edit out ANY type of speech that can be deemed offensive by 0.001% of the population. That is unless you are the longstanding majority. Then you just need to buck up and feel ashamed for what you've done to whatever minority (!!!). If you read further into the post you find that AOL has refused to deliver emails containing a certain URL because they have received "numerous complaints" on the URL. What is that? There is plenty on the 'Net I find offensive but I don't expect my ISP to decide it should reach me or not. Thank you very much but I have a mind of my own to do that for me. And I certainly wouldn't want to stop anyone who is seeking that themselves. If that is their prerogative than so be it and I can leave myself out of it. Heck, Christianity itself is FULL of things that people can find offensive. Does that mean I shouldn't receive a URL to an article about Christian beliefs? I am beginning to fear that those who have been crying "fascists" the loudest are instead trying to cover for their own ideas. Either way the First Amendment does protect speech such as the one in question it just doesn't protect speech that will incite "imminent" violence. I don't think that describes this at all.
Anyways check out the blog itself as it is much better written than this one and is yet another differing opinion than you will find in the mainstream media.
UPDATE: The Marmot has his own experience with Kwanzaa.
2ND UPDATE: Seems Eugene Volokh is noticing the trend as well.
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