By: Brian Redmond, PhD
The title of this entry was meant to be provocative, but there is a certain type of truth to it. In particular, leaders need to be intolerant of intolerance. It’s a needed paradox to create work situations where every can feel like they belong to the organization.
Conflict management skills are a huge set of competencies that leaders need. Particularly when it comes to the idea of hate and intolerance. I’ll go into conflict management another day, but in this entry I want to focus on the situations and the reasons leaders need to be intolerant of intolerance.
The growing hate in our country has me thinking deeper about some truly core issues of our democracy and ideas I haven’t had to think about in a long time. One of which is hate speech and its relationship to the First Amendment, a truly great American creation.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (U.S. Const. Art. V Amendment 1)
The parts that we are concerned with of regarding bigoted hate speech are primarily two portions “no law…” “…abridging the freedom of speech” and “the right of the people to peaceably assemble”. I’m only truly going to touch on the free speech in this post, and hopefully return to right to assemble another day.
Many of these bigoted gatherings are labeled “free speech” rallies. And yes, their message is protected by the First Amendment.
However, nowhere in that Amendment does it say that anyone must listen to their message.
This would be my first preference for eliminating hate speech; just ignore it and it will lose its power.
And for a long time, that was part of what kept these organizations in check. They weren’t viewed as legitimate, so people ignored them, and their numbers dwindled.
Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. The internet paired with a new type of bigot; one who actively recruits new members has given breath back to a losing cause. And let me be blunt about that; racism and other “isms” are about lost causes. They have no place in successful workplaces or society at large.
But let me back up a bit.
The internet (especially the mobile web) makes ideas available to everyone, everywhere, anytime. We often take that for granted but take a moment to think about how vast a power that truly is.
Image credit: Brian
Natural communities form around ideas there. This is incredibly powerful. Where people used to be isolated, they now have likeminded people who can support them and help them grow in a whole host of areas; educational fields, technical specialties, gaming and other hobbies, leadership, the list goes on and on.
The flipside of this unfortunately is that hateful people can find each other where before they may never have found each other. This gives their ideas validation, but also a false sense of legitimacy as they see that there are others like them.
This however does not make their ideas legitimate, but they see them as legitimate and gives them power to resist changing their beliefs.
And unfortunately, in our legal based and modern journalism system where two sides of an argument are always presented, even when one is clearly better objectivity or morally, our society is trained to see both sides as equal (Otto, 2016). This is a false equivalency in many cases and bigotry is the one that is pertinent right now. All races are part of a single human species. Therefore, all human beings deserve the same dignity and human rights, no matter their race, religion, ethnicity, etc.
And this is where my stomach turns right now. I don’t want to impinge on anyone’s free speech rights, but at the same time, lives are at stake here. You can’t sacrifice one person’s rights for another’s. Particularly if bodily harm is involved in the equation. I wish that I didn’t have to write those words. I wish that everyone could get along. But that is not reality. Reality has real consequences, and no amount of wishing will change it. Free speech does have limitations; for example, you can’t yell “fire” in a movie theater unless there actually is a fire because of the chance for physical harm to others.
The new breed of bigot is also more likely to actively recruit than past bigots. They are actively pursuing speaking engagements on college campuses and finding ways into online communities where young people are more likely to be influenced. They are much more organized because of the internet and have consolidated resources in many cases so that they can grow these awful ideologies. Which is why we need to be more vigilant than ever.
I’m not advocating for a law. Regulating emotions leads us to another dark place where people aren’t free to be themselves.
What I am advocating is: see something; say something.
If you see racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. speak to the person. Don’t yell at them or call them stupid. Instead ask them why they said that and then have a (hopefully) intelligent conversation with them and try to persuade them to a better way.
But as leaders, under no circumstances, allow it to go unchecked as that further emboldens the bigots that their ideas are legitimate.
Also, support those who do call people out on their bigotry. I’m not saying with donations to causes (which are fine), but with actual words of encouragement or support in the moment; that gives tolerance further legitimacy and empowers the right side of history.
In other words, leaders need to embrace an intolerance for intolerance. It’s a needed paradox.
References
Otto, S.L. (2016). The War on Science: Who’s Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It. Milkweed Editions.
United States Constitution Article V Amendment 1