Little in this world is as straightforward as the rules surrounding the use of the n-word. If you’re not black… you don’t get to say it. We’ve even got an app for that!
Despite this clarity, we white people are always trying to make new rules for it. “Some black people use the word!” Sure. As part of a linguistic reclaiming, it’s a term available to black people. Other black people still choose not to use it. The key to this “confusion” around the word is that black people have the option to work this out for their own lives and don’t need white people trying to figure it out for them.
White people like Cook County Judge Richard D. Schwind. While sentencing a black man who punched his ex-girlfriend’s brother — a white guy — after the white guy decided to drop the n-bomb on him, Judge Schwind took a bit of a detour through the old-timey segregated country club:
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You take offense to a word that — you, you were never a slave, but you take offense to it. And I understand that. But the bigger man walks away. You don’t resort to violence. That’s why society is the way it is now.
Judge Schwind is now confined to administrative duties.
Of all the half-baked linguistic rule proposals out there, the “only former slaves can be mad about being called the n-word” is a new one. Is he suggesting that the term only applies to former slaves and therefore this guy shouldn’t be offended? None of this makes any sense.
But Judge Schwind is unintentionally right in one way though: this is why society is the way it is now. It’s a society where black people have hate speech thrown at them in ways that white people never have to endure and then get told if they do anything about it they should be processed by the criminal justice system. A vocal segment of white people think black football players should lose their jobs and be jailed for merely talking about racism, let alone taking action when it happens in their face. The problem is Judge Schwind thinks this is a positive.
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Maybe all the folks wringing their hands over the coming generation of “snowflakes” should stop complaining about political correctness and set the tone for toughening up of the country by learning how to take accountability for their actions and suck up the punches in the jaw they earn. Because the guy who took the punch didn’t have to call the cops. That was just because he’s soft.
Of course, the law can’t let people go around punching each other, regardless of the provocation, but it can be much more sensitive to why people punch each other when doling out punishment.
In Lindsey’s case, the judge accepted a guilty plea and sentenced him to a year of probation and 80 hours in the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program.
On the one hand, Judge Schwind deserves some degree of credit that there’s no jail time, which is a penalty that was theoretically on the table in Illinois. On the other hand, how many bar fights over someone insulting someone else’s wife are resolved with a stern warning and a modest fine — if they ever result in charges in the first place? If there’s ever an instance to err on giving the benefit of the doubt to a defendant at sentencing, it would seem to be when the “victim” is a jackass spouting racial slurs. Given the public facts here, this guy deserved an admonishment to not punch people, a little community service and — most importantly — an order cleaning his record going forward. The worst punishment of all is to make this a conviction for a violent act that will always hang out there waiting to be used against him for merely defending his honor from a bigot.
Sadly, whatever discipline Judge Schwind faces for this boneheaded slavery reference is going to obscure the more important, but often subtle, issue of sentencing disparities. And we’ll go right back to where we were before — just with prettier language.
That’s why society is the way it is now.
White Cook County Judge Tells Black Defendant: ‘You Were Never A Slave’ [WBEZ]
Araujo and Schwind assigned to “administrative duties,” referals made to JIB [For What It’s Worth]
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.