If You're A Slant-Eyed Chink... Did I Just Rape You?

If you ever wonder why some lawyers are concerned about not weakening the First Amendment in any way, consider this an ideal exhibit.

Keith Lee

Keith Lee

My wife is Korean. I have lots of Asian relatives and friends. If I asked all the Asian women I know, which of the following they would prefer:

  1. Have someone call them a “slant-eyed chink” in an online chatroom
  2. Be raped

I’m 100% confident that all of them would choose number one. If I then asked them which they thought would be worse:

  1. Have someone call them a “slant-eyed chink” in an online chatroom
  2. Be raped

I’m 100% confident that they would say that number two is worse.

But apparently this isn’t the case in Germany.

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Ralf Jaeger, interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, said police had to “adjust” to the fact that groups of men had attacked women en masse.

Three suspects have been identified, he said, but no arrests had been made.

Scores of women say they were robbed or sexually assaulted by men, reportedly of Arab or North African appearance.

Mr Jaeger also warned that anti-immigrant groups were trying to use the attacks to stir up hatred against refugees.

What happens on the right-wing platforms and in chat rooms is at least as awful as the acts of those assaulting the women,” he said. “This is poisoning the climate of our society.”

That’s right, racist language is “at least” as awful as real, physical sexual assault on women. Meaning that someone using racist language is potentially worse than real, physical sexual assault.

Such a statement is insane. As Tyler The Creator eloquently stated in 2012:

You can walk away from racist/homophobic/bullying online comments. If you’re surrounded by a dozen men attempting to rape you, walking away isn’t an option.

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If you ever wonder why some lawyers are concerned about not weakening the First Amendment in any way, consider the above an ideal exhibit.

Speech, no matter how offensive or inflammatory, is not the same as physically assaulting someone. Almost any attempt to conflate the two is authoritarian and should be rejected as such.

Yes, mean words might hurt your feelings. They might make you sad or upset. But if you think someone saying bad things about someone else on the Internet is the same as physical assault, you’ve had an incredibly sheltered, docile life. You’re also likely a self-involved narcissist of the highest order, ranking your own feelings as equivalent or superior to the experiences of others that happen in the physical, real world.

If that’s how you perceive the world, that’s your prerogative. But if you expect the rest of us to obediently agree, I have a message for you:

Fuck off.


Keith Lee practices law at Hamer Law Group, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes about professional development, the law, the universe, and everything at Associate’s Mind. He is also the author of The Marble and The Sculptor: From Law School To Law Practice (affiliate link), published by the ABA. You can reach him at keith.lee@hamerlawgroup.com or on Twitter at @associatesmind.