# "One Love"? RIGHT. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 27, 2004, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271 "2004-09-27T06:16:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/21 "2004-09-27T14:47:21Z")
Threats from reggae-loving homophobes? Lord-a-mercy. / inappropriate, but how can you take that death threat seriously? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/22 "2004-09-27T14:56:30Z")
Small consolation, but Beenie Man has publically apologised in the UK for homophobia in his early lyrics. Whether this is a cynical commercial decision or not remains to be seen… ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/23 "2004-09-27T15:02:59Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Small consolation, but Beenie Man has publically apologised in the UK for homophobia in his early lyrics. > > Whether this is a cynical commercial decision or not remains to be seen… Oh, you mean this? (from [here](http://www.hour.ca/music/music.aspx?iIDArticle=3876)) > [@](#): > > Beenie Man’s record company, Virgin Records, quickly issued a public apology on behalf of Beenie Man, who has promised to drop his anti-gay songs from his setlist. > > “I renounce violence towards other human beings in every way and pledge henceforth to uphold these values as I move forward in my career as an artist,” the statement read. **Within hours of its release, in a bid to shore up Beenie Man’s street cred back home in Jamaica, Beenie’s PR flack Clyde McKenzie told Radio Jamaica the apology was initiated by Virgin Records and not Beenie Man**. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/24 "2004-09-27T15:22:23Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Well, I knew that he was speaking in **patios.** I simply wondered if anyone here could translate it, or if it was just plain nonsense in any language. Nah. If he was speaking in patios, there would be references to Charcoal cooking and umbrella tables, mon. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/25 "2004-09-27T15:51:09Z")
**Chastain:** _inappropriate, but how can you take that death threat seriously?_ I dunno, after I read the link about homosexuals being threatened and beaten and burned to death, I had no trouble at all taking it seriously. Just because a certain dialect is often portrayed as all silly and endearingly goofy and childlike doesn’t mean that the people using it aren’t actually mature, articulate adults, some of whom have extremely vicious prejudices about which they are very serious indeed. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/26 "2004-09-27T16:37:31Z")
> [@elfbabe](#): > > From the article linked by **matt\_mcl** : > > So chi chi men or battymen or battyboys or battybwoys are gay men. And “fire burn” represents burning. With fire. He is advocating burning people to death because of their sexual orientation. I would think this would be obvious in context. > > … do people really find these words that difficult to understand, or are you all claiming not to understand the language as a way to dismiss the views expressed? Well, I didn’t read the link. ---
**Author:** ![QuizCustodet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ba0ec/32.png) [@QuizCustodet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuizCustodet)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/27 "2004-09-27T16:39:13Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > I can only hope that Peter Tatchell is taking comfort from the notion that if he’s getting death threats from deranged homophobes, he’s doing something right. I don’t think you need to be too worried about that. I’ve not always agreed with Peter Tatchell’s tactics, but I’ve been watching his campaigns since I moved to Britain, and with his record I don’t think anyone can seriously claim he’s not one of the most courageous men in politics. He’s already been beaten to within an inch of his life by Robert Mugabe’s bodyguards for taking a protest about gay rights in Zimbabwe right to the top, and it doesn’t seem to have slowed him down at all. He’s a genuine hero, and we don’t get many of them in these latter days. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/28 "2004-09-27T16:51:53Z")
Wow. Should this kind of speech be protected by the first amendment? > [@](#): > > “Throughout the night, Capleton, Sizzla and others sang almost exclusively about gay men,” Amnesty International reported in a May 17 alert. “Using the derogatory terms for gay men - ‘chi chi men’ or ‘battybwoys’ - they urged the audience to ‘kill dem, battybwoys haffi dead, gun shots pon dem. Who want to see dem dead put up his hand’ (kill them, gay men have got to die, gun shots in their head, whoever wants to see them dead, put up your hand).” ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/29 "2004-09-27T16:57:29Z")
> [@](#): > > “I renounce violence towards other human beings in every way and pledge henceforth to uphold these values as I move forward in my career as an artist,” the statement read. Now, so long as Rastafarianism doesn’t hold that gay people are subhuman… ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/30 "2004-09-27T17:11:47Z")
You’ve got to have a hate object to focus upon! Hitler did it. Orwell wrote about it. These guys are modern-day practitioners. Sad fuckin’ world. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/31 "2004-09-27T17:13:22Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Wow. Should this kind of speech be protected by the first amendment? If someone said that to my face, it would definitely be ‘uttering threats,’ I think even in the US. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/32 "2004-09-27T17:15:16Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > If someone said that to my face, it would definitely be ‘uttering threats,’ I think even in the US. Something about shouting “Fire!” in a movie theater seems to apply here, in my non-legal-professional opinion. But then I could be completely wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/33 "2004-09-27T17:24:55Z")
There’s the [exception to free speech for incitement to a crime](http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/freedom1.html#incitement). Interestingly, on the linked web page, there’s a very similar example question: > [@](#): > > If a budding rap group proposes to perform a work which includes the exhortation to “kill whitie” or “kill the cops” or “rape the babe,” could that be incitement to a crime? Such records have been sold by commercial organizations, of course, yet there are no reported arrests of those artists or record companies for incitement to a crime. Should such rap lyrics be considered incitement to crime or is the causal relationship to any actual murders or rapes too tenuous? I suspect that if, after a show, a group of fans went gaybashing, the band could face charges; I’m not sure if this has ever happened before. I’m pretty far to the extreme end fo speech protection, but I would wholeheartedly support criminal charges against a band if that were to happen. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/34 "2004-09-27T17:27:19Z")
These guys seriously need to go smoke some ganja. Oh, wait… ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/35 "2004-09-27T17:31:45Z")
I’m a big reggae fan, but it’s this kind of shit that has kept me from getting into dancehall. The music itself is interesting and has much potenital, and it’s slowly seeping over into American and British hip hop and rock. But I won’t listen to this stuff any more than I would listen to skinhead metal/punk like Skrewdriver. As a reggae fan, it’s really fucking sad what has become of Jamacian music. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/36 "2004-09-27T18:35:31Z")
What ever happened to the good old days, when rastas and gays could sit down together and complain about the Pope? ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/37 "2004-09-27T21:27:04Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#): > > I’m a big reggae fan, but it’s this kind of shit that has kept me from getting into dancehall. The music itself is interesting and has much potenital, and it’s slowly seeping over into American and British hip hop and rock. But I won’t listen to this stuff any more than I would listen to skinhead metal/punk like Skrewdriver. As a reggae fan, it’s really fucking sad what has become of Jamacian music. Just an aside, but dancehall is quite popular among many gay Londoners (where Peter Tatchell lives). There’s even a very popular and long-running club night (Queernation), which attracts gay Afro-Caribbean men and plays dancehall, hip hop, etc. There was an article in the gay press recently featuring vox pop reactions to Beanie Man and his ilk. Most of it was a great big shrug, with surprisingly few strong negative opinions. In my experience, gay ol’ London is like that–the gay scene is so huge and strong that it’s practically mainstream. It’s easy to forget we’ve got it good. It takes controversies–and perhaps these death threats will be a sufficient outrage–to shock the larger gay population out of complacency. (Truth be told, most of us boys are more concerned with popping pills and taking our shirts off. The political queens, Peter Tatchell and his ilk probably don’t get the support they deserve.) ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/38 "2004-09-27T21:29:41Z")
Incidentally, “batty” = bum, hence the leap to “batty boy” meaning gay man. (Batty isn’t necessarily a negative term; my friends and I refer to our usual drinking spots as batty bars.) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/39 "2004-09-27T21:33:56Z")
> [@Jervoise](#): > > It’s easy to forget we’ve got it good. … > > (Truth be told, most of us boys are more concerned with popping pills and taking our shirts off. The political queens, Peter Tatchell and his ilk probably don’t get the support they deserve.) Ain’t just London. ---
**Author:** ![SnakeSpirit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snakespirit/32/7271_2.png) [@SnakeSpirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakeSpirit)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271/40 "2004-09-27T22:07:23Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > You’ve got to have a hate object to focus upon! Hitler did it. Orwell wrote about it. These guys are modern-day practitioners. > > Sad fuckin’ world. Right on comment, and scary, too! What group today does not have a hate object? Although it is toned down much more than the OP example, we’ve groups in the world that profess love and holiness and then hate either: pagans, christians, witches, muslims, gays, blacks, whites, abortionists, govenment officials, police, liberals, conservatives, etc., in fact any group whose beliefs are suspected of eroding their own. What ever happened to “live and let live?” SnakeS ← (VERY discriminated against and killed often just cause a small subset happens to be poisonous and kills people; _snif_) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-love-right/266271.md?page=3)