Good article. Keep it up. At secondary school there was a guy who was bullied everyday from 1st to 6th form. I felt badly for him but at the time didn’t want to go against my ‘friends’ and defend him. I met him, he’s doing well for himself, but ten years after the fact he hasn’t gotten over it and all he said was ‘all I remember you doing was, nothing’. It stung but it was true. Within schools, there needs to be a peer-led intervention in ending bullying.

[...] Bajan Dream Diary makes a case for hate speech legislation in Barbados. Cancel this reply [...]

I enjoyed your article, but writing about hate speech is only one aspect of the issue. If you want hate speech legislation enacted, you have to implement the other part of the regimen: organize, organize, and organize more. You need to organize people who will benefit most from hate speech legislation.

I am a Barbadian, and most of us are not used to getting involved, we have been acculturated to “grin and bear” or talk and that’s the end of it.

I wish you the best and know that you can attain your aspiration, but you have to do much leg work. If not you, then who, if not now, when? Talk to teachers, including principals; students; befriend parents; start an organization; and lobby politicians. These baby steps will ensure that you succeed.

As you take the first step, you will attract more like-minded and interested people. Consider having all stake holders on your team: students, teachers, parents, and politicians.

Better for Barbados to have a hate crime law in place and never need it, than to have a need for one and don’t have it. To have such a law in place is forward thinking. Moreover, the skills learned can be transferred to other areas to help others with other issues that need solutions. Barbadians needs to find solutions for issues and not leave them for somebody else, including the government. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

As Barbadians, if we don’t become increasingly proactive, we might live to regret it. The world we’re living in today is a vastly different world from any time in the past, and it isn’t friendly. If we don’t exercise our God-given abilities, we will lose them: use it or lose it.

If we do nothing, others from far and wide would find us easy pickings because we would remain a docile people instead of proactive. Blog and mobilize, you cannot fail. If you never make a step in the direction you want to go, you would never know what could have been. I’ll be praying for you.

Mobilize, in Barbados? Behind bullying?

Pigs will fly first.

People hardly care, and I’m sure the government cares less.

It’s the vics that hurt most, call me cynical but I don’t think that the people who can actually do something about this actually care enough.

Going on the same definition of masculinity that has seen some idiots fracturing their penises in reverence to deejays’ predilection for rough sex, any detours from the hyper-masculine, brutish, rude boy image is viewed as dirty, effeminate, gay.
———————————-

Brilliant.

“Daggering” is the logical extreme to rank paranoia and hatred of homosexuals.

However,I think that hate speech legislation is one of the most ridiculous (though logical historically) ideas to emerge from the left–ever. In fact I want to use stronger language but I will restrain myself.

Justice must be blind. It must be. This focus on “empathy” in laws and legislation always leads to diminished freedoms and a more brutal society. Always. This is why Britain has banned an American DJ who says things they don’t like (clap, clap?) but cannot manage to deport some of the most inflammatory “imams” in the English world right in their capital city.

Freedom has a price. Free speech means that there must be freedom to offend. Who determines what to outlaw? What happens when the government begins to outlaw speech that offends it?

People who are bullied need to be taught to stand up for themselves. It seems shockingly blunt, but that is the only method that has ever worked against bullying (because bullies are cowards).
All the anti-bullying lobby in the U.S. has done is push bullying outside of school and online (“cyber-bullying”). Even parents are “cyber-bullying” children these days!

(There are other little things that can be done as well–including limiting school sizes; but the main work has to be done by the victim or a representative.)

To the above poster:

“People who are bullied need to be taught to stand up for themselves”

Are u insane?

At school, when girly boys tried to stand up for themselves, they were beaten WORSE!

There’s a reason why their bullied in the first place. They’re often weak, feable, you know – girly?

Bullies are bigger, stronger, manly?

See a trend here?

Thoughts?

Were you ever bullied personally?

As a person who survived bullying all through grade school, I must say that the worst and most psycologically damaging bulllying came from the systemic prejudice from society in general against people of a homosexual orientation. The organizations most responsible for such degradation of homosexual people are religious institutions. the only way to stop this systemic heterosexism with this legislative measure is to infrindge upon religious institutions right to free speech. Granted that these institutions step far outside their bounds, in terms of freedom of speech, they do not understand that their arrogance and ignorance is the cause of such a drastic measure. If we enforce such a policy, before we educate the masses on why we need to do such a thing, there will be a severe backlash. Yes, Justice must be served but the oppresser dosent understand that what they are doing is wrong. They will percieve themselves as the victim and then react violently for the percieved injustice against them. Before we pass such a measure we must educate the maases to avoid an atrocity.

Do you see where hate speech legislation or political correctness leads? To people like Chris saying that religious speech should be censored. The gay, muslim lobbies (there are other lobbies but these are two of the most powerful) cannot have it both ways. If you are free to say that homosexuality is not a choice that they are born and it is an alternative lifestyle then others MUST be free to say that they believe it is wrong an abomination in the sight of God. the two sides to any position have to be given the right to be heard. Let listeners judge for themselves. People can say with impunity that christians are rigid, hateful instigate violence perpetrated many atrocities in years past but to say that about the Muslim religion is Taboo.
While it is true that all homosexuals are not alike , this premise applies to any grouping. there will always be a spectrum of positions across any grouping but all opinions must be allowed to be aired.

Very good article, well written and raising an issue that has hardly been raised in Barbados officially.

Bullying was commonplace when I went to school and what it taught me was who was not a friend, not in a childish way, but in a full and real way.

If someone commences to bully you, they are either jealous, have a personal grudge or are just plain unhappy with their own life and nasty to boot.

Why on earth would you want to be around that person. Yes, avoid them.

I personally could not be bullied physically, but then persons resorted to verbal abuse.

Probably I could have retaliated, then I would have been accused of being the bully and a troublemaker.

No, what it taught me was to ignore the fools, and now in business I will never give any of those perons any credence or assistance if they cross my path.

So, I moved on, but those who bully also face consequences, if much later in life.

Do you honestly think that I would assist giving such persons selection in a job position, if I am party to such selection, when I already know their ‘personality’ and do not like the traits?

I agree that there needs to be legislation, but unfortunately, legislation will rely on evidence i.e. teachers and other students, to be enforced, unless one is willing to use electronic surveillance to support one’s case.

Therefore, legislation may not have the teeth required to stop the practice.

Bullying is actually a behaviour, reflective of our society, of jealousies, of hatreds and bigotry as per the wider society.

But, if nothing else, legislation is better than nothing.

Of course, now that schools internationally have had ‘gun incidents’, I would strongly discourage anyone here from bullying, gosh knows when some child gets his/ her parents gun, turns up in school and shoots a bunch of others.

As many have now accepted for many things, never say that ‘it cannot happen here’.

To: Numbers don’t lie -

Chris is wrong.

When I think about hate speech, I think calling somebody a fa**got, nig*er – inflaming public opinion against people based on sex, gender, race, etc. Like what happened with this Carl Walker boy. Hate speech legislation shouldn’t (and doesn’t) take away the right of people or the church to have their opinion but it must draw the line at verbal harrassment and defamation.

To: Raggamuffin

I agree with you. People who bully tend to be all of what you described, and have horrible, disgusting character traits. I have never been physically or verbally bullied or know anyone who has been but I just know I couldn’t do it, and I don’t know what type of person that would.

Excellent article and some excellent comments. Very sad that it was necessary.

Certain comments have hit the nail right on the head by pointing out that there is a difference between freedom of speech and bullying. The first is essential in any democratic society, otherwise the society doesn’t function as it should. The second is unacceptable in any circumstances and for any reason.

Personally, I find is very sad that any 11 year old for any reason (in this specific case, homosexuality) finds it preferable to kill himself rather than face the strictures of the society in which he lives, especially as if he lived in other societies like Europe and North America, there are infrastructures in place to assist him to live, cope and function.

It is equally sad that a percieved homosexual leaning in an 11 year old who would probably have ended up as a heterosexual adult evoked this bullying that led to him taking his own life. The fault in this case has got to be that of the parents of the children doing the bullying. It is their bigotry and incitement that led to the bullying. Manslaughter as a criminal charge against the parents of the children doing the bullying springs to mind.

Hate crime legislation exists in most societies and so it ought to in Barbados.

As far as the holy rollers are concerned, personally I have a strong religeous ethic in spite of the organized religeons to which I, as a child, was exposed. I firmly believe that organized religeons, far from revealing God, obscures God. After all, if we all believed that we have the indivdual right to approach an all-knowing, all-seeing God, all-loving God, without the intercession of some organization-appointed “expert”, where would they be? They have a vested interest in obscuring God and fortunately some people have seen through the smoke-screen. All we need to make these practitioners of organized religeon irrelevant is love, understanding, tolerance and the acceptance of universal brotherhood. Strive towards these and some extremely valuable real estate would come on the market and our purses would be considerably heavier come every Sunday.

[...] is the original post: Words hurt: is it time for hate speech legislation in Barbados? Tags: barbados, image [...]

Hate speech legislation or CENSORSHIP in a FREE SOCIETY? I thought that was only used by the Nazis and Stalin to silence critics of social or political policies

This also hinders free and uncensored discussion on controversial topics.

criticism (of a faith, opinion, or lifestyle) will be viewed as something traumatic and harmful and often misused to avoid debate or worst yet to be used as grounds for punishment for critics.

Debate is essential to searching for the truth, and hate speech codes interfere with this
by silencing discussion from the very start;censorship.

People should be confronted with perspectives they can find repulsive, as it will help strengthen their own arguments and ultimately achieve a more sturdy, well-rounded understanding of the issue.

Whatever hate there is will still be there just hidden beneath a veil of deceit.

Hate speech legislation does not deal with bullying either as most bullies like to portray themselves as innocent little angels , and to accuse them of being a bully would turn the victim into the criminal. Also there is already Speech Codes in schools and private places already.

I believe people can say anything they want to as long as they do not physically harm me or encourage others to harm me or impede me from making an honest living because of their prejudice.

If you feel you are being harassed there is such a thing as a restraining order.
You don’t need to have a lawyer , but consult one.

I don’t see the benefits of limiting Free Speech , if we start here where will it end?
Let me give you examples. Some people are offended by the word BLACK you cannot call them black or anything of theirs black even thought they are. They can argue racial discrimination , as they view the word black as negative.Don’t get me started about the N word.

Then in a case where there is a warning sign “Trespassers will be shot or electrocuted” , could be interpreted as hate speech.

Then there was a case of an office worker in America “where public speech codes are illegal by the way and private ones being fought on the grounds of uncontitutionalism and censorship) , this office worker put up an american flag in her office for the 4th of july , independance day. A black Nigerian co-worker complained about it as he found it offensive citing America’s history of imperialism and slavery.The flag was taken down. It was later put back up after the lady complained to her union but the very fact she , an American was made to take down the American Flag on her country’s independance day is a testament to the absurdity of Hate Speech legislation.

ac
i one hundred percent agree with infinite .i think they are laws that a person has a legal right to defend themselves in a court of law against physical abuse .the writer of the article may be wise to think this through propelybecause in todays society it doesn’t take much to make people angry and the courts woildn’t have enough time to figure the mess out.

These words in this “article” are proof of YANKEE COLONIALST BRAIN WASHING– you have lost your soul– you should be ashamed of your self to sleep with colonialsts