The case of Shiloh Hendrix has become one of the most polarizing free-speech controversies in the country after Hendrix, a Minnesota woman, went viral after using the N-word during a confrontation at a Rochester playground.
Now, Hendrix has been found guilty on one count of disorderly conduct related to her interaction with the man who recorded the incident.
While BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock doesn’t condone Hendrix’s actions, he doesn’t like what this means for free speech — and he doesn’t believe that a woman should be charged for using a word that the black community uses all the time.
“A woman in Minnesota got into a screaming argument with a grown man in a public park. She said an ugly, sinful word, and yesterday the state of Minnesota made her a criminal for it,” Whitlock explains, adding, “I’m about to tell you why she is not the one you should be afraid of. The government is.”
While activists and even the attorney general of Minnesota wanted to charge Hendrix with a hate crime, Whitlock points out they couldn’t get a hate crime.
“Because in the United States, there is no criminal law against hateful speech,” he says, noting that instead, they went for disorderly conduct.
“The only count they convicted her on was the argument with the grown man who filmed her. Sentence, 90 days, suspended, a fine, community service, no cell, no bars. They didn’t punish her for what she said to a boy. They punished her for arguing with a man,” he explains.
“They didn’t need to jail her. They needed to label her. They needed a word in an argument between two adults to become a crime,” he adds.
However, the word she’s being punished for using is a word that’s repeated all the time in the black community.
“Here’s the lie the rappers and mainstream media sell you,” Whitlock says. “That the word changes based on who’s holding it. That in a bigot’s mouth, it’s a weapon, but in a rapper’s mouth, it’s culture. That the color of a man’s skin launders that word clean.”
“I have never believed that. Not once. It’s a lie. The word is the word. It’s poison coming out of a racist in a park. And it’s the same poison coming out of a stage in front of 20,000 kids who chant it all the way home,” he continues.
“Melanin does not sanctify it. A beat behind it does not baptize it. If it’s a sin, and it is, then it’s a sin in every mouth,” he adds.
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