True History Matters Education The New Normal The Pandemic
EMPTY GALLERY CAFE
Freedom of Speech
July 29th 2020
THE QUESTION
Just How free should we be you express our opinions - however hateful or harmful?
This was our first open question cafe where people could submit a question about any subject at all that mattered to them Prior to this have been linked around a theme. Choices of what to vote for were much harder because they were not just selecting from questions with subtle differences, as you can see the themes were very diverse. Their was greater disappointment here if your choice of questions wasn't voted for. At the end we asked which of the others questions would people want to discuss, the top two were 4 Are there positive sides to aging? Is there a benefit from more inter generational mixing? And secondly 9. Tribalism- What are the positives and negatives of belonging to a group? As a result we shall be looking at both of these in future Empty Gallery Cafe Conversations.
NOTES FROM THE BREAKOUT ROOM
First Group;
Feel that there is good legislation in place in UK re Hate Crime but not clear what is in place in USA as members of congress appear to be free to use misogynist and racial abuse. It appears that misogyny unlike racism and homophobia is not yet a hate crime in UK. Sometimes people feel diffident about challenging people who have racist/misogynistic views particularly in a social situation. Another in the group said they feel confident to challenge.
JK Rowling was strongly criticised for expressing an opinion about people born as men who now identify as women. There seems to often be extremes of views and if someone questions them they can be shouted down. It seems we have to take a side. Should people like Tommy Robinson be given a platform to express his views? How do you decide what is Ok to talk about? Our Empty gallery café feels like a safe place to express views as our group is liberal and tolerant. There’s a Walt Whitman poem stating that we all contain multiples , humans are contradictory, yet we can still function. Political correctness may hinder open discussion, scared of saying the wrong thing. If we were in a different group we might hold our tongue, won’t challenge or question in case we’re accused of being prejudiced.
Second group;
One member of the group said that there are certain views that if they were expressed by someone in his house such as a holocaust denier, he would ask them to leave. Individual establishments/institutions should have the right to sanction or not who is able to express views on their premises/websites etc. We think it is the case that there is no law against criticising a religion. A religion is a belief system and it should be ok to criticise people’s points of view and also aspects of their cultures such as FMG. Germaine Greer was criticised for saying that a person born as a man cannot become a woman. Sometimes establishments will not act as they are concerned about being called racist as was the case in Rochdale where mostly Asian men were systematically sexually abusing children in care and the police did not take action to protect them. Why is misogyny not a hate crime? Maybe because its so embedded in our culture we don’t recognise it.
Is it Ok to make a joke about anything/ Alf Garnett in Til Death Us Do Part? To many liberals his character was exposed as being a racist with hateful views but also people with right wing views saw him as a hero. The motive behind a joke is important. We should judge people on previous behaviour. People should be able to express a view that might be perceived as offensive if it is due to ignorance and they are willing to listen and are open to learning. You can make one mistake and your career is over.
Feel that there is good legislation in place in UK re Hate Crime but not clear what is in place in USA as members of congress appear to be free to use misogynist and racial abuse. It appears that misogyny unlike racism and homophobia is not yet a hate crime in UK. Sometimes people feel diffident about challenging people who have racist/misogynistic views particularly in a social situation. Another in the group said they feel confident to challenge.
JK Rowling was strongly criticised for expressing an opinion about people born as men who now identify as women. There seems to often be extremes of views and if someone questions them they can be shouted down. It seems we have to take a side. Should people like Tommy Robinson be given a platform to express his views? How do you decide what is Ok to talk about? Our Empty gallery café feels like a safe place to express views as our group is liberal and tolerant. There’s a Walt Whitman poem stating that we all contain multiples , humans are contradictory, yet we can still function. Political correctness may hinder open discussion, scared of saying the wrong thing. If we were in a different group we might hold our tongue, won’t challenge or question in case we’re accused of being prejudiced.
Second group;
One member of the group said that there are certain views that if they were expressed by someone in his house such as a holocaust denier, he would ask them to leave. Individual establishments/institutions should have the right to sanction or not who is able to express views on their premises/websites etc. We think it is the case that there is no law against criticising a religion. A religion is a belief system and it should be ok to criticise people’s points of view and also aspects of their cultures such as FMG. Germaine Greer was criticised for saying that a person born as a man cannot become a woman. Sometimes establishments will not act as they are concerned about being called racist as was the case in Rochdale where mostly Asian men were systematically sexually abusing children in care and the police did not take action to protect them. Why is misogyny not a hate crime? Maybe because its so embedded in our culture we don’t recognise it.
Is it Ok to make a joke about anything/ Alf Garnett in Til Death Us Do Part? To many liberals his character was exposed as being a racist with hateful views but also people with right wing views saw him as a hero. The motive behind a joke is important. We should judge people on previous behaviour. People should be able to express a view that might be perceived as offensive if it is due to ignorance and they are willing to listen and are open to learning. You can make one mistake and your career is over.
Disclaimer It is important to recognise the Empty Gallery Cafe is a 'conversation' space where different people air their views and points of view, and that they should feel free to do so. The value of these conversations are that they allow us to hear all points of view and gain a greater understanding of the complexities of what people think and feel about any given subject. Any statements presented by an individual as factual cannot necessarily be verified and should be taken at face value, nor can we guarantee the accuracy of the reports as they are written by volunteers elected at each conversation. The opinions expressed in the reports on the conversations belong solely to the individual who expressed them, and not necessarily to the organisation, committee, group or any of the other individuals in attendance.
