Reading Response 6

In my opinion, hate speech is geared towards influencing others to blame a certain group or stereotype. Toni Morrison mentions in her speech that oppressive language not only influences violence, it is violence. I really like the way she explained this, because it’s absolutely true. Oppressive language is the same as an oppressive act, just like verbal abuse is equally, if not more painful than physical abuse. Morrison stresses that words have as much power as physical acts and this revelation is one that should be taken into account by everyone. People constantly underestimate how powerful words can be. Words can motivate an entire crowd to commit unthinkable acts. Just last week, somebody did their power point on Hitler and mentioned how much power his words had on the country of Germany. Somehow, Hitler was able to turn everybody against an entire population of people. Hitler used hate speech when influencing massive amounts of German citizens. Hate speech consists of targeting a group or population, usually to blame them for something. It may or may not consist of derogatory comments, but whether or not it does, it is still awful. It always involves pointing out this group or population’s flaws, and why others should turn against them as well.