(April 26, 2011 at 11:27 pm)Zen Badger Wrote: More to the point, is there actually any U.S laws regarding racial villification?
Once again, Zen, the issue comes down to "speech" versus "conduct." A few years ago the New York City council tried to ban the word "nigger" and the rappers went nuts. Even though the bill was largely symbolic ( it provided no penalty ) it was still simply an attempt by the government to ban "speech."
However, if you are beating someone up and call him "nigger" most states have adopted some form of hate-crime legislation which makes the assault worse. Again, it varies from state to state.
One is "speech" the other is "conduct." If a Klan leader stood at a microphone urging his followers to attack "niggers" that could ( and should ) be construed as speech which could start a riot and the Supreme Court has upheld criminal sanctions there.
