Let's talk comments...

Ok, so I like to believe I'm an advocate of the supposed "freedom of speech" that we have in this country. I'm probably one of the last people to try and stop someone from expressing themselves, with the EXCEPTION that their expression does not hurt, harm or potentially endanger someone physically or emotionally. But I will say this...I do NOT tolerate blatant disrespect and outright hateful comments from anyone in person, and that will NOT take place on this blog as well. I think that a sign of adulthood and maturity is the ability to state your opinion, a fact, or give a great argument for your point of view without attacking someone personally (given that the topic is not that person's character).

It's apparently the "thing" on the 'net for random people to go around to the websites of popular newspapers, blogs and magazines and spread their racist, sexist, classist and hateful ideologies in the comment sections of these publications. And of course, the website of the Miami Herald is no exception now-a-days. Stroll over there to see what I mean. It's almost a given now that I can read the title of an article and guess correctly EVERY TIME that there will be the following type of comments:

"Nobody cares about a drug dealer, especially a negroid one."

"I love how black people say this could happen to any other race BUT it always seems to happen to Blacks. Coincidence? I think not! Please go back to the motherland."

And those are the light ones! Bishop Victor Curry wrote to the Miami Herald a few months back in response to the disrespectful and ignorant comments that tend to flood the site on certain stories (mainly those involving Black and Latino subjects). My question is where is the regulation of this site? With the lack of employment in our County, and with half their online readers suggesting that we "negroids" need to get jobs, it isn't too far-fetched to hire someone to read and DELETE comments such as these. I'm pretty sure this ignorance doesn't fall in line with the journalistic integrity and basic human ethics of the Miami Herald and its writers, right? Or maybe they don't care, that's a good possibility too, one that I'm really starting to wonder about seeing how long these type of comments stay up on their site.

All I'm saying is, let's be adults (young and old) about the topics we discuss here. We can disagree all day, hey having your own mindset is great! But save your ignorance for around the water cooler and your family rooms, I know how some people do! Or how about get rid of the ignorance, being that its a new year and all :)

~BND