Conservative columnist Thomas Sowell is upset that bullied gay teens are hogging the limelight. Apparently they’re all a bunch of attention whores and drama queens, and as a result, they are just the latest trend in media coverage. Kids who are taunted and called “fag” relentlessly are just “in vogue.” You know, like Crocs were not that long ago. Says Sowell in his column yesterday:
Back in the 1920s, the intelligentsia on both sides of the Atlantic were loudly protesting the execution of political radicals Sacco and Vanzetti, after what they claimed was an unfair trial. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to his young leftist friend Harold Laski, pointing out that there were "a thousand-fold worse cases" involving black defendants, "but the world does not worry over them."
Holmes said: "I cannot but ask myself why this so much greater interest in red than black."
To put it bluntly, it was a question of whose ox was gored. That is, what groups were in vogue at the moment among the intelligentsia. Blacks clearly were not.
The current media and political crusade against "bullying" in schools seems likewise to be based on what groups are in vogue at the moment. For years, there have been local newspaper stories about black kids in schools in New York and Philadelphia beating up Asian classmates, some beaten so badly as to require medical treatment.
But the national media hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. Asian Americans are not in vogue today, just as blacks were not in vogue in the 1920s.
Three things. First, as Jeremy Hooper over at Good As You points out, considerable attention actually has been paid to the violence perpetrated against Asian Americans, on local and national levels. A simple Google search confirms this. Second, much of the media attention Sowell decries in his column starts in the gay blogosphere, not because of some craze within the mainstream media to talk about bullied gay teens. Third, bullying is indeed a problem that transcends communities, identities, and body types. I was bullied for being gay, but I was also bullied for being overweight. Bullying in all forms needs to be tackled and eradicated. Absolutely. I don’t think anybody disagrees with that (well, I think some people do, but not people on our side).
That being said, there is something more than a little offensive about implying that the anti-gay bullying issue is being given a voice because gay teens are some kind of fad. Which is exactly where Sowell is going with his argument. That, and anti-gay bullying is being used as an excuse to take away “free speech” from bigots.
Meanwhile, the media are focused on bullying directed against youngsters who are homosexual. Gays are in vogue.
Most of the stories about the bullying of gays in schools are about words directed against them, not about their suffering the violence that has long been directed against Asian youngsters or about the failure of the authorities to do anything serious to stop black kids from beating up Asian kids.
[…]
But there is still a difference between words and deeds -- and it is a difference we do not need to let ourselves be stampeded into ignoring. The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of speech -- and, like any other freedom, it can be abused.
If we are going to take away every Constitutional right that has been abused by somebody, we are going to end up with no Constitutional rights.
[…]
Meanwhile, a law has been passed in California that mandates teaching about the achievements of gays in the public schools. Whether this will do anything to stop either verbal or physical abuse of gay kids is very doubtful.
But it will advance the agenda of homosexual organizations and can turn homosexuality into yet another of the subjects on which words on only one side are permitted. Our schools are already too lacking in the basics of education to squander even more time on propaganda for politically correct causes that are in vogue. We do not need to create special privileges in the name of equal rights.
Really, Thomas Sowell? Yes, because this is totally something the gay community is really super-duper thrilled to have to deal with. Nothing warms our cockles more than a bullied gay teen.
No, Dr. Sowell, people are dying. It’s not called an LGBT teen suicide epidemic because it’s a small issue. Anybody who has gone to school in which somebody is or is perceived to be gay knows that that person is a target. It’s a vast, vast problem. In middle school, not a day went by when I wasn’t called some variation of “faggot.” A gay teen just down the road from me was thrown down the stairs and sent to the hospital with broken ribs because of his sexual orientation. Stories about LGBT teens killing themselves dot our headlines not because of some sort of Chia-pet-esque fad but because it’s an actual fucking problem. It’s not a fad, it’s not trendy, it’s not something anybody is happy to have to talk about.
And I’m sorry, but words do matter. Words create an environment that breeds anti-gay violence and gay suicide. Violent and suicidal actions don’t just come out of thin air. This isn’t an abstract theory. Blood has been shed and will continue to be shed because of words. So let’s not pretend that there’s some sort of disconnect between words and violence.
Words can also create an environment that welcomes and accepts gay people. It’s not a solution in itself, but to suggest that the teaching of LGBT history will make no difference in improving the school environment for LGBT teens is patently absurd. It’s part of a larger puzzle that teaches respect and tolerance and tries to remove the feeling of “Otherness” from the classroom.
Thomas Sowell either cannot or will not understand this. To him, it’s not about bringing attention to the bullying of Asian Americans, although his argument is cloaked in faux-concern for their situation. Nor is it about the LGBT teens who are bullied, beaten, and driven to suicide on a regular basis in what is supposed to be a safe learning environment. It’s about the victimization of right-wing bigots by the “homosexual agenda.” Conservatives, after all, are always the real bullying victims.