When Lionel Shriver, one of my favorite authors (We Need to Talk About Kevin) faced the keynote speech at the Brisbane Writer's Festival in 2016, she railed against "cultural appropriation" as a concept. She said, "I hope the concept of cultural appropriation is a passing fad." and closed her speech by saying, "We fiction writers have to preserve the right to wear many hats – including sombreros."
Of course, Shriver was right. She's still right.
Also, of course, she made a lot of people angry. One woman attending the festival left in anger and wrote a scathing response to Shriver's speech in the Huffington Post.
Of course, Shriver's critics on this issue are wrong. Grossly wrong. Unfathomably wrong.
That said, there's something great about this--Shriver wasn't cancelled.
This is deeply important.
People want to conflate heckling with free speech. In many cases, people want to say that the many speaking over the few is just an exercise in free speech.
It's not.
Walking out of Shiver's speech definitely makes me respect some people less. Especially fiction writers should value the ability to "wear many hats" and walk in the shoes of people who are different from you. Still, nobody booed or heckled Shriver out of saying what she wanted to say.
That's free speech.
You sit down and fucking listen. If you don't want to listen, you get out of the fucking room. If you're really and truly offended, make a counter argument.
That's free speech.
Storming a stage isn't free speech. Heckling a speaker isn't free speech. Trying to prevent people from listening to somebody isn't free speech--it's narcissism.
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