Joel Reinstein: In identifying the Paris killings as a threat to free speech, Maass and Chretien approvingly quote Guardian columnist Gary Younge, who writes that “any cartoonist will now think more than twice before drawing the kind of pictures for which Charlie Hebdo became notorious.” Of course this is narrowly true, but then some cartoonists might not have previously thought even once about it: The Islamophobic backlash means there will be more racist caricatures, not less. Quoting Cinzia Arruza: “The repeated publication of vignettes caricaturizing Islamists by adopting religious symbols and stereotypical representations that by the same token identify 5 million oppressed people living in France was not an act of courage.” The Paris killings were not carried out by any state, nor by a right-wing group aligned in any sense with those in power. On the contrary, the speech for which Charlie Hebdo was targeted was in line with the racism of the political establishment, and the imperialism it promotes. While I generally agree with Maass and Chretien that “threats to free speech should not be minimized in today’s world,” it’s a mistake for socialists to raise political concerns over isolated threats to racist speech–speech that’s not threatened but largely endorsed by those in power, and that actually threatens the rights of an oppressed group. More here.