NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/consumer/16308

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-14 | 1.6 KB

Xref: sparky misc.consumers:16308 alt.discrimination:4203
Path: sparky!uunet!usc!news.aero.org!gabriele
From: [e-mail] (Mark Gabriele)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,alt.discrimination
Subject: Re: Waldenbooks fires staff for refusing to sell racist book!
Date: 8 Sep 92 12:02:56
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
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Distribution: usa
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NNTP-Posting-Host: solecism.aero.org
In-reply-to: [e-mail]'s message of 8 Sep 92 13:31:42 GMT

The ex-manager of the Waldenbooks store who was interviewed by NPR
said explicitly that they had no interest in censoring the offensive
calendar/date book.  What he wanted to do was remove it from the
display, since the display contained many other calendars, including
some that were intended for children (e.g. Peanuts).  His logic was
that displaying the calendar elsewhere would not be censorship, and it
would be tucked out of the way of children and casual browsers unless they
looked on a shelf for it.

I despise censorship, but it appears to me that the fired employees
were merely trying to do a good deed by removing offensive material
from a location where people who are likely to be affected by it are
sure to stumble across it.  What they did was insubordinate.  It was
also a thing that a decent, first-amendment-loving human being might
do (akin to placing a pressboard cover over the cover photo on a copy
of Playboy magazine so as not to offend passersby).

=Mark Gabriele
([e-mail])