After listening to President Obama’s address on immigration last Thursday, I was incredibly disappointed. I was not necessarily disappointed with the speech as much as I was with the reaction I heard on our local conservative radio station.
Actually, the reaction was not unexpected. It was angry about Obama overstepping his bounds, America, Freedom, and “illegals,” the basic stuff. My disappointment came when the local DJ used an ethnic slur in reference to undocumented immigrants. When I contacted the DJ, he made a joke on-air and refused to own up to the fact that his choice of words was offensive and uncalled for. After checking in with management at the station, the DJ was given a second opportunity to acknowledge the inappropriate language. Instead of standing up and admitting it was wrong, the response was a brush off of the issue and some side comments about “black people” and “rap music.”
If that was an apology, it was the worst apology ever.
No matter what your stance is on immigration, there is no call for using language that is hateful and disrespectful, not just to the people being referred to, but also to the people who are listening. Our community is better than hate speech. We don’t need to agree on everything, but for everyone’s sake, let’s agree to put hateful language aside in our discussion of important issues.