The Delaware County (PA) District Attorney’s Office recently announced plans to investigate allegations that volunteer firefighters from the Briarcliffe Fire Company used racial slurs and disparaged Black residents in a late-January conversation following a virtual meeting. The investigation comes at the behest of Darby Township commissioners, who voted to suspend Briarcliffe Fire Company operations Wednesday after learning of a racist conversation. This included one Briarcliffe volunteer allegedly mocking the name of 8-year-old Fanta Bility — a Black child police officers fatally shot outside a high school football game in Sharon Hill. “Whether or not a crime occurred, hate speech is always morally wrong,” said Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer at a news conference. “It doesn’t reflect the people who live here in Darby Township and it really doesn’t reflect the people who live in Delaware County.”[i]
In spite of the fact this is Black History Month, words matter, especially when expressed in mockery, taunting, to create harm, or to infuriate an audience. Just ask Joe Rogan.
For the record, I emphatically state loud and clear that this is unacceptable behavior and must stop. It must stop in the fire stations and in our daily interaction with others. Words matter!
In an article written by Dr. John McWhorter, the N-word began as a neutral descriptor, but this was quickly freighted with the casual contempt that Europeans had for Africans and, later on, African-descended people. The term’s evolution from slur to unspeakable obscenity was part of a gradual prohibition on avowed racism and the slurring of groups. It is also part of a larger cultural shift. [ii]
The N-word in the fire station or on the street or in your daily discourse has different meanings to the speaker, the audience, or target. We all react with some sort of horror, anger, or resentment that we had to hear this word when directed to one of our co-workers or a group of our colleagues. As Dr. McWhorter indicates in his article, there are certain areas of the country where the N-word is used almost on a constant basis and among black people themselves. There is also a slice of America using this word in disparagement and race baiting on a constant basis.
In today’s fire service, more than 7.8% of our firefighters are black, whereas the predominant firefighter race is white at 83.5%. The United States population in the 2020 census was 331,449,281 people, where whites make up 57.8%, Hispanics make up 18.7% and African American/Blacks make up 12.1% of the population.[iii]
Black firefighters have a rich history in the fire service. As we are all too aware, litigation involving race or gender are well known and unfortunately does not seem to be slowing down. In fact, I believe litigation related to these offenses are on the rise, as my legal cohorts will attest to, and the number of phone calls I receive asking for some direction based on overt or covert discrimination based on race and gender are growing.
So, is the use of the N-word Hate Speech or Hurtful Speech? Hate speech is defined as speech in any form of public expression of hate through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin. [iv]
However, is it protected by the First Amendment? In the United States, unless it crosses the line and becomes incitement, fighting words or a “true threat,” hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, as noted in past court rulings, in the most recent demonstrations in the United States, and probably by some people in your social media feeds as well.
There are some limits to this amendment, however, meaning there are some types of speech that the government can actually regulate. Take “fighting words,” for example. Fighting words are words or phrases that create chaos and harm, such as shouting “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater and even those words have been muted in some court decisions. Not that it is right, but still debated. The theory of yelling “fire” in the movie theater would create mass chaos as people run outside and potential harm as people trample and knock each other down. The phrase is a paraphrasing of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s opinion in the United States Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States in 1919, which held that the defendant’s speech in opposition to the draft during World War I was not protected free speech under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The case was later partially overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio in 1969, which limited the scope of banned speech to that which would be directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action (e.g. a riot).[v]
There are other instances in which certain forms of speech can be regulated and banned, such as when speech challenges the military and harms the war effort (i.e. Espionage Act of 1917) or when it advocates for imminent lawless action, as decided by the Supreme Court in Brandenburg v. Ohio in 1969 [vi] [vii]. But by and large, Americans are mostly free to engage in whatever verbal or nonverbal speech they desire.[viii]
However, given those freedoms, should we pursue a direction of banning the use of the N-word? In my world, a resounding YES. With that said, and for complete disclosure, I have used the N-word on certain occasions and the time remembered was as a kid playing a game that starts with “Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, —–“…and you know the rest. In my upstate New York white neighborhood, we mostly used the N-word and no other available words during this game. When in the Navy, the N-word was routinely used and during my travels in the south, likewise and frequently used. Even among other black firefighters, the N-word between each other made me cringe even said in jest or as a gesture of a greeting. However, to me it remains a slur towards a group of people in a disparaging and racist manner. Did I speak up? When I could, but many times, I let it pass, as so many of us do, I am embarrassed to say.
Is hurtful and demeaning speech through words and deeds meant to place others in a position that is less than our position in society or standing in our community? We have a history, during times of conflict in all wars the United States has participated in, to demean and dehumanize those we are fighting as it places us in a “superior” position to our enemy. I could recite about 50 or more slurs used towards the “enemy” both foreign and domestic, but I will not.
An interesting psychological tactic during times of war, denigrating terms describing our enemies was commonly used and during my time in Vietnam. As a Navy Corpsman serving with the Marines I heard many versions of disparaging terms describing the enemy. In all if not most wars, disparaging terms describing our enemies was designed to place those enemy combatants in a lesser place in the chain of human evolution, at times classifying them as subhuman and making it easier to kill them. Are we at that position in our society today, denigrating those who do not look like us or hold our beliefs as subhuman and not deserving of a place at the table?[ix]
We can truthfully say that insensitive language, given with an intent to harm, or a slip of the tongue or in the heat of the moment, can help or harm those on the receiving end of our inarticulate utterances. This language has a long lasting effect on our employees. Most departments have policies that address these issues in the form of anti-bullying, anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, codes of conduct, and ethical standards. There are not enough polices in the world that address firefighter behavior while on the job or even off the job.
Without being the “word police,” I urge each and every one of you to take a look at the world around you; things are changing. There are more examples of “offensive” behaviors recorded, heard, witnessed and litigated than ever before. In today’s modern society, the N-word is used all too frequently. Certainly, the embarrassment of the Briarcliffe Fire Company should remind us all that words matter. Both individually and as a group, firefighters can set an example for the rest of our community.
[ii] Opinion | How the N-Word Became Unsayable – The New York Times (nytimes.com) Dr. John McWhorter (@JohnHMcWhorter) is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University.
[iv] “hate speech”. dictionary.cambridge.org.
[v] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/249/47/
[vii] http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=3&psid=3904
[viii] https://www.theodysseyonline.com/hate-speech-protected
[ix] “Less Than Human’: Why we Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others by David Livingstone Smith
JOHN K. MURPHY, J.D. M.S, PA-C, EFO, began his fire service career as a firefighter/paramedic and retired as a deputy chief after 32 years of service. He is an attorney licensed in Washington whose focus is on firefighter health and safety, firefighter risk management, employment practices liability, employment policy, internal investigations, and expert witness and litigation support. He was a Navy corpsman with the Marine Corps. He is a lecturer, an educator, an author, a legal columnist, a blogger, and a member of Fire Engineering’s Fire Service Court Blog Talk Radio Show. He is also a lecturer at the IAFC Fire Rescue International and I-Women conferences. He is a National Fire Academy instructor. He is a distance learning instructor for the University of Florida Fire and Emergency Services programs.
This commentary reflects the views of the author and not necessarily the views of Fire Engineering.
