Thursday Thoughts With TJ: On Confronting Racism

ILLINOIS — There is no nice and easy way to begin this conversation, so let's just go ahead and rip the bandage right off: Some of our neighbors are terrible at being neighborly, and there are too many people in this area who are comfortable with racism. There it is. Doesn't the truth feel good?

I know. I can already hear the whimpers of self-righteous rage: “This is America. We have freedom of speech. How dare you judge us?” I'll get to that part, trust me.

I was raised in Park Forest and Chicago Heights, not too far from here. I have been living in and reporting on the Lincoln-Way area for the past five years. I've seen some blatant acts of racism during that time, and I've done my best to shine a light on those acts through my reporting. One might think that I've become somewhat desensitized to it by now, that I would be able to brush off the racist comments I see on a daily basis and just get on with my life. That is not who I am. And, I suspect, that is not who the majority of you are, either, dear readers.

Some of these comments I read are so disgusting, so putrid, so abhorrent that it boggles my mind that there are still people in this world — and in our neighborhoods, no less — whose lives are so filled with hate and ignorance and sadness. As much as I detest those comments, there is a tiny sliver of me that feels pity for those who make them. What an unfulfilling life it must be to be so obsessed over the color of people's skin.

To be absolutely clear about this: Comments filled with hate directed at other people, rather than comments meant to further a conversation where people are free to disagree and discuss each other’s positions, will not be tolerated, and should not be accepted by anyone as appropriate political discourse.

Patch has a team of moderators who do their best to identify and quickly remove these types of comments when posted on our website. That team does a tremendous job, given the scale of their workload and the limited amount of resources they have at their disposal. Occasionally, some of those racist comments get through. Every editor at Patch does his or her best to be on the lookout for those comments and get rid of them immediately. We understand that those comments do nothing to further a conversation and, quite frankly, deter our readers from coming to our articles and engaging with each other.

Facebook, on the other hand, is quite lackluster in the enforcement of its own policies. Racist comments slip through there much more frequently. We editors have a difficult time catching and removing Facebook comments because that would be a full-time job in itself, and then there would be no time left to report the actual news that you, dear readers, care about. Please believe me when I tell you that we want to be better, and we need your help to do it.

Which brings us back to the First Amendment and freedom of speech. Freedoms are not absolute. None of them are. Freedoms come with responsibility. Those who abuse their freedoms, those who would use those freedoms to inflict harm on others, do so in direct opposition to the intent of those freedoms.

So, can people post whatever comments they wish? No. Not all speech is protected. Private companies, including Patch and Facebook, have the right to limit what content is published to its sites. And, again, please believe me when I tell you that we at Patch are dedicated to making sure that those who use their voices to abuse others will have no place in the comments sections of our articles.

I have come to believe that there are too many people here who wouldn’t at all be disappointed if people of color just up and left the Lincoln-Way area. Some people don’t seem to understand, or care, that the inclusion of many voices from people of many backgrounds is what makes our country great.

Some people only want to hear ideas from people who look like them. They only want our children to go to schools with people who look like them. They only want to do business with people who look like them. Sure, they will tolerate small pockets of “others” out of necessity, but they’d be happier if they didn’t have to do that.

It is up to us — me, you and the rest of society — to call those people out when we see their hateful, ignorant comments. It is up to us to let them know that those comments are not OK, that they do not represent the majority of people's opinions, that they will not be tolerated.

So, I am asking you, dear readers, please flag/report those comments when you see them. Please do not be afraid to use your voice as a tool for good. Please do not allow a small group of people to dominate conversations that would greatly benefit from the inclusion of more rational voices.

I am a journalist, a bringer of light to the dark corners that some would rather not have exposed. I am a journalist, one who holds up a mirror and asks others to take a good look at what they see. I am a voice for the voiceless, for the countless number of people who have had their voices taken from them by the powerful and by a vocal few in the minority. But one does not need to be a journalist to do these things. We all have that power, dear readers.

I believe we can do better. And, with your help, it is my sincere belief that we will.