State Rep. Valdenia Winn spoke her mind in a House Education Committee session of the Kansas State Legislature on March 19. She spoke against a bill that would reverse an earlier law giving undocumented immigrants the right to receive in-state tuition. She spoke honestly and called the bill out for what it was … only to be investigated and face censure.
What exactly did she say?
According to the transcript, she said, “This is a racist, sexist, fear-mongering bill that I would like first to apologize to the progressively-minded people of Kansas who are appalled that we are turning back the hands of time…um…regarding to, and I am going to use strong language, Jim Crow tactics, and once again making Kansas a laughingstock.”
She continued, “I want to apologize to the students and their parents whose lives are being hijacked by the racist bigots who support this bill. …”
Yes! That’s right. It’s pretty impressive for someone in any political chamber of this country to stand up and just speak the truth about anti-immigrant attacks such as House Bill 2139. Rep. Winn did. And conservative lawmakers tried to intimidate her into silence with a formal complaint.
But on June 26, the complaint against her was dismissed in a Capitol room overflowing with people, mainly supporters of Winn’s right to free speech. Winn received a great deal of support in a struggle that clearly recognized the attack on her as an attack on genuine free speech.
The victory for anti-racist speech in the Kansas legislature comes in the midst of a so-called debate nationwide about removing Confederate flags from official sites and schools. In the halls of legislatures across the country and on TV screens and radios, racist speech and racist symbols like the Confederate flag are to be treated as items of free speech. But when an African American politician calls a racist anti-immigrant attack out for what it is, she is accused of being inflammatory, inappropriate and slanderous.
This is how free speech is treated in a system festering with contradictions because of its very nature, a system founded on and sustained by rampant inequality, a capitalist system.
Free speech under capitalism is defined in the interests of the ruling class, the “one percent.” When those who rebel or fight back speak, they are treated to intimidation or censure. Or, most often on college and school campuses, they are required to invite their “opponents” or share the “other side.” But racist, sexist, bigoted speech in the interests of the system is protected and often fostered.
