Following
the Charlie Hebdo attacks Angela Gilchrist looks at how we
think about those we see as ‘different’.
 |
| We can protest for our freedom but can we also accept difference? Photo: Claude Truong Ngoc |
The right to freedom of
speech reached a watershed with the Je Suis Charlie march in
Paris. Not only did it reveal double standards but it highlighted
how easily liberty is talked about, yet how impossibly difficult to realise.
The sentiments were
admirable, even moving. But as world leaders who have journalists locked up in
their own countries marched under the Je Suis Charlie banner along with well-known
Western leaders, some began to worry about the trickier, more complex aspects
to this debate.
Does the legal right
to offend others, make it desirable, and if so, when? If you’re a person
who belongs to a marginalised, often discriminated against group, such as those with disabilities, LGBT people
or those who happen to be religious, you’ll know how it feels to have your
particular ‘issue’ lampooned. It’s painful, and we become defensive. What many
fail to understand though, is how this all too human foible remains (as indeed
it must) separate to the right of free speech.
