German Man Fined $2,300 for Racist Text Message

Your commentary is, essentially, ignorant, and displays a pitiful lack of simple, widely available historical knowledge. Read some history before attempting to make an informed statement on racial matters, and especially on the legal aspects of racism in other nations.

Felicia, you wrote, "A look back in history, Jewish people have been judged and tormented from the early days and still are today. But they let it roll off their back." You must be reading a different version of history than me. Jews certainly have not let their persecution roll of their backs. They died being forced to work to death in camps in WWII and forced to walk into "showers"/gas chambers. They had no choice but to be killed in various pogroms and Crusades. Being in a minority and not having power they no more let it roll off their backs than American Blacks enjoyed slavery.

Don't apologize for bad manners, or inciteful behavior in a country with a history it needs to be acutely aware of.

Freedom of speech is NOT a right in Germany, that's why the neo-nazis have no platform here.

Angela, maybe you should seriously consider going over to Europe to live. The U.S. has freedom of speech and hopefully will continue despite the best efforts of the liberal establishment to enforce their brand of politically correct speech. And if you are really sincere about enforcing a law against the words you don't approve of you would have to agree with me that the first to be fined would be all those rappers who use the N word since they have it recorded for everyone to be offended by it. Fine them all!

For sure!! Every and anybody... no eception to the rule. But we can't put it all on rappers....how did they get the word to begin with for them to exploit it. So, we can blame it all on rapper cause it goes much farther than that. We also have to go to every religion that disparge or try to assimilate Jews into Christians. So, I get your point, I also get how you tried to get a dig against rappers, that's like saying ALL rock is like Marilyn manson.

Blacks don't use the N word to offend or terrorize anyone, they took a word that was meant to be derogatory towards their person and turned it around to a term of endearment, so now racist are mad because they are labled racist if they use their own made up racist word towards blacks, but blacks can say it with a smile. Why does that burn racist up? Is it because they can't say it face to face to a black alone,without a lynch mob, without getting an arse whooping? Or is it because they took the power from the word? I need an honest racist, it shouldn't be hard on this board, to give me an honest answer?

Angela, how can you say you speak for all blacks? I have read that many blacks find the use of the N word offensive. And to say that it becomes a term of endearment? That is just too much to swallow. I don't see other races or nationalities trying to trivialize a word that was used prior to people being beaten or killed. Angela, please be honest about this. If the word is bad it is bad period. You can't have someone using it and say it is ok and someone else using it and being called a rascist. Will it come down to where we have a color chart to determine if someone is black enough to use the N word and if he is too light colored he becomes a rascist? Do you see how crazy this can get?

OK, let's take a look at that phrase "hide behind my computer racist". So you think you can tell who is a racist just because someone disagrees with you? That is precisely why the discussion of race is this country is going nowhere. I have found that very often as soon as someone disagrees with a person of color the "racist" tag is hung on them. Why don't you deal with the facts and not try to interpret them through a lens that tells you that's racist or he or she is racist. Tell someone what makes it racist and then you really have a discussion. If using the N word is ok with you then I think you have a problem. It is a derogatory word and not a term of endearment. If it is a term of endearment then anyone could and should use it everyday, not just certain people who are selling records and making money off of it. The whole point of this discussion is to have free speech, not the government censored speech of Germany. If it isn't free for everyone than it soon won't be free for anyone.

So what do you mean by the term "I hid behind my computer racist"? Is this what the discussion breaks down to, someone posts and it is assumed that the post is racist if you disagree with it? I think that is why the discussion of race will never get anywhere if people who disagree are hit with the "racist" label. Your post would be more effective if you actually stated what was racist about someone's post instead of just lashing out. Give some specifics or am I right that you feel that to disagree is to be called a racist, either with or without a computer? I just hope that my point is being made that I don't want a government censored right to speech as they have in Germany. I suspect that you and Angela would be happy with the German style censorship.