I first want to establish what I believe we should all be able to agree on.
1) Freedom of speech is extremely important and should be protected. Nobody should live in fear for something they've said, or in this case, drawn.
2) Violence towards someone for saying, drawing or printing something which offends you is not okay. Nor are threats or intimidation.
3) Racism and/or religious discrimination is also not okay. Assuming all people of a nation or all believers of a faith are guilty of the crimes perpetrated by a few is discriminatory and wrong.
I already think I'm pushing it a bit by asking people to accept that third point, but I kind of feel that if you can't at least consider that bit, you're unlikely to see what I'm getting at with the rest.
I don't think Charlie Hebdo is funny. Some of it I can attribute to being very local, and just not translating well to a Canadian audience. The rest? Well, here's where it becomes a little more complicated.
When Charlie Hebdo takes potshots on a larger, more international scale as opposed to just mocking those involved in French and European politics, they aren't typically taking aim at the big guys. They're targeting people and groups that are often already marginalized and/or oppressed... groups that are treated particularly badly in France. Anti-Muslim sentiment, along with many other kinds of anti-immigration or anti-ethnic sentiment, has been on the rise for some years. The law which forbids wearing religious symbols in public has been almost exclusively enforced in cases of young women who choose to wear a hijab; while the law isn't specifically anti-Islam on paper, it certainly is in practice. Many of Hebdo's jokes seem entirely designed just to be shocking and deliberately provocative. They're not subtle, they're not even particularly clever. They're often cruel, and cruel on multiple levels.
These are the guys that a while back, published a cartoon which depicted the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram as pregnant welfare moms.
Let's look at that for a second. These young girls who only wanted an education, who were forcefully abducted by violence from their school, were portrayed in a way that the cartoonists and editorial team at Hebdo felt was shameful. This is not only cruel and insulting to those girls who harmed no-one, but to the girls' parents who must be so worried about their children. Many of those girls have likely already been forced into marriages they don't want, with men who will likely treat them as property. It's also subtly insulting to young single mothers, by further stigmatizing being young and pregnant and reliant on assistance.
Another, more recent, cartoon showed Charlie Hebdo in a deep, passionate kiss with the prophet Mohammed. This is not just deliberately antagonizing to those who believe the prophet should never be depicted, but I think it's more than a bit insulting to the homosexual community, by inferring that kissing another man is somehow shameful. It's also interesting to note that in all its many depictions of the prophet, he's a singularly ugly caricature of an Arabic man. That seems unnecessary; if simply drawing the prophet is the joke and it's all about showing their irreverence for religion in general, why does he have to be hideous? A cursory examination of caricatures of other religious leaders does not yield the same results. This lends weight to the argument that Hebdo is often racist.
I have a problem with these things because they're in poor taste. They're making fun of people who are easy targets. Just because you have freedom of speech and CAN say and draw and print these things, it doesn't mean you should. You aren't a hero for making fun of people and being mean, what you are is a bully. Being killed by extremists doesn't automatically canonize you as a saint and a martyr to the cause of free speech. It's still tragic, because nobody deserves to die a violent death for something they said, but forgive me if I'm not going to lionize you for your "bravery" after your death. I'm just going to be sad about the whole thing.
I'm kind of horrified that I saw a friend post this quote a few weeks back:
but then saw that same person go on to post images from Charlie Hebdo and put up a new profile picture of "Je Suis Charlie", all ostensibly in favour of free speech.
My refusal to identify with Charlie and change my profile picture isn't about stifling freedom of speech.
It's about being kind.
It's about not deliberately antagonizing or demonizing people who we need to learn to get along with, especially as the world gets smaller. We do not make peace with other cultures or end extremism with disrespect.
To me, freedom of speech means that we also have the right to NOT say things that are disrespectful and unkind. We can say and print whatever we want to, but we can also take the higher ground of kindness, good manners and good taste.
I am exercising MY freedom of speech by refusing to identify with Charlie. Je ne Suis Pas Charlie. I am not Charlie, and I don't want to be anything like Charlie; I think Charlie is a crass asshole who can't pick on someone his own size.
Charlie Hebdo can say/print whatever it wants. The paper has that right.
I have the right to not read it, identify with it or support it in any way.
I have the right to support newspapers and media outlets that have chosen not to reprint these images in the interest of being sensitive and kind to others.
If you want to call me a coward or say inflammatory things because I make these choices, go right ahead. Just remember this: if you feel threatened by the idea that we can also choose not to say things, then maybe you aren't such a big fan of free speech as you think you are.
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