4 ms·

What did Benjamin Franklin say that you think is hate speech? Because that sounds like a very tenuous claim.

by rhcom2 7y ago

darkpuma 7y ago
> "Palatine Boors" He had some pretty nasty things to say about anybody who wasn't an Anglo. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-04-02-0080 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-04-02-00... > "And since Detachments of English from Britain sent to America, will have their Places at Home so soon supply’d and increase so largely here; why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion." > "Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind." I believe the modern response to that is "Big Yikes."
- cannonedhamster 7y ago
  I mean it's racist, but is it hate speech? It's basically the Republicans party platform for keeping the southern border closed and limiting immigration from mostly darker skinned countries.
  - darkpuma 7y ago
    If racist remarks aren't hate speech, then what is?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - threwawasy1228 7y ago
    I think that most people don't really differentiate between the two these days. That is a core part of the issue.

What did Benjamin Franklin say that you think is hate speech? Because that sounds like a very tenuous claim.

by rhcom2 7y ago

What did Benjamin Franklin say that you think is hate speech? Because that sounds like a very tenuous claim.

> "Palatine Boors" He had some pretty nasty things to say about anybody who wasn't an Anglo. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-04-02-0080 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-04-02-00... > "And since Detachments of English from Britain sent to America, will have their Places at Home so soon supply’d and increase so largely here; why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion." > "Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind." I believe the modern response to that is "Big Yikes."

cannonedhamster 7y ago
I mean it's racist, but is it hate speech? It's basically the Republicans party platform for keeping the southern border closed and limiting immigration from mostly darker skinned countries.
- darkpuma 7y ago
  If racist remarks aren't hate speech, then what is?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- threwawasy1228 7y ago
  I think that most people don't really differentiate between the two these days. That is a core part of the issue.