Shiloh Hendrix committed a sin; she didn’t commit a crime. It’s important to acknowledge that for the sake of righteousness and justice in America.
Sadly, most people on the Left do not care about justice, and some people on the Right do not care about righteousness.
On Thursday, a Minnesota jury convicted Shiloh Hendrix of disorderly conduct for calling a black person a nigger. She was fined $1,000, ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, and received a stayed 90-day jail sentence.
The incident happened at a playground in Rochester, Minnesota, in April of last year. In a video recording of the incident, a black man confronted Shiloh Hendrix—a white woman—for calling an 8-year-old black boy a “nigger.” Hendrix mocked the man, showed him the middle finger, and repeatedly called him a nigger. She justified calling the autistic black boy a “nigger” because he allegedly grabbed something that belonged to her child.
Hendrix started a fundraiser on GiveSendGo to relocate and protect her family from online threats after the video went viral. In that fundraiser, she said, “I called the kid out for what he was.”
The NAACP, local Democratic politicians, and other activists pressured the Rochester City Attorney’s Office to investigate the incident and charge Shiloh Hendrix for disorderly conduct.
According to Minnesota law, disorderly conduct includes “offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct or in offensive, obscene, or abusive language tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others.”
According to the law, Shiloh Hendrix is guilty. In that sense, the jurors were faithful to Minnesota law. The problem, however, is Minnesota’s disorderly conduct law is unfaithful to the Constitution.
Minnesota’s disorderly conduct law basically says that if a person uses hateful or offensive words that sadden or anger another person, they could be charged with a crime. But freedom of speech doesn’t exist to promote good speech. It exists to protect bad speech. Freedom of speech exists to give people the right to offend us.
I am probably one of the biggest targets of white nationalists on social media. I am called a nigger and other racial slurs every day. There are people who have seemingly dedicated their online lives to harassing me with hateful messages.
I’ll admit that, occasionally, I am weary. It’s not the racist words that trouble me. I have never seen or spoken to my father. My family was severely poor throughout my childhood in Ghana and Canada. And there are other sufferings I can’t name. I would be weak if racist words broke me when much more painful things haven’t.
We shouldn’t minimize how the word “nigger” has been used to dehumanize black people. But we also shouldn’t classify the sinful word as an unpardonable or criminal offence. Especially since no group has done more to minimize the dehumanizing history of the word “nigger” than black people. The average black person will be called “nigga” much more often by other black people than he will be called “nigger” by racist white people.
If calling a black person a nigger is a crime, then the vast majority of black people should be in jail.
It’s not the racist words that make me weary. What troubles me is that most of the people who fill my notifications and messages with hateful words claim to love God. That is what grieves me. I will never understand the mind of the person who claims to love God but hates some of the people he has made in his image. It’s like a man who says he loves his wife but hates the children she bore for him.
Still, the people who send me the hateful messages do not belong in jail. Like Shiloh Hendrix, they are committing a sin—not committing a crime.
We all know that if roles were reversed and the black man shouted racial slurs at Shiloh Hendrix’s white child, Minnesota wouldn’t have investigated and charged the black man for disorderly conduct. In fact, there were essentially zero charges and convictions on disorderly conduct for BLM rioters in Minnesota in 2020.
This level of government-sanctioned discrimination against white people is why racial partiality against black people is significantly increasing.
Also, if offensive words that “arouse alarm, anger, or resentment in others” are considered disorderly conduct, what does that mean for pro-life advocates and Christians in Minnesota? According to the law, preaching the gospel or doing pro-life advocacy in Minnesota could be a criminal act.
With that in mind, there are conservatives and Christians who claim to care about the dignity of children with disabilities. But some of these people have shown that they are more eager to defend Shiloh Hendrix’s racist words than the child.
Minnesota’s failure to protect Shiloh Hendrix’s right to freedom of speech doesn’t negate her failure to protect the little boy. It saddens me that the culture wars have killed some people’s souls. Some conservatives have traded the Republican elephant for golden calves.
Some people are justifying her words and calling her a hero. I have received 3,000 comments on my social media post about the verdict. Most of the comments look like these:
“Lil chimp was chimping what can you do.”
“So he said it 100 times f that dude tall tree short rope. Oops I forgot thats is free speech as well.”
“Not a crime. And not a reflection of character. She used the proper word for the proper occasion.”
Most of the people making those kinds of comments claim to be Christians.
Those of us who are faithful to Christ and faithful to the Constitution can defend Shiloh Hendrix’s right to freedom of speech without defending or justifying her sin.
She shouldn’t be in jail for her words. However, the Bible says, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37)
If Shiloh Hendrix doesn’t repent, one of the reasons why Jesus will sentence her to hell is because of her careless words at the playground.
A racist word isn’t a crime, but it is a sin. We shouldn’t downplay the sin just because Minnesota has elevated it into a crime.
For the sake of people like Shiloh Hendrix—for the sake of their own souls—we shouldn’t justify sin.