The recent flap over Donald Sterling and his comments to his girlfriend bring to the surface a recurring problem that bubbles up time and time again. Like a Loch Ness monster, the public knows it is there below the surface. You never really get a good look at it, but it floats along on its own. At times like these, when Sterling’s comments bring the monster to the surface, people express shock or even outrage that such a sentiment has been expressed. It is not enough in this society that the use of a derogatory term for one of another race or cultural origin is tantamount to a modern day Scarlet Letter, but now personal expressions of bigotry on a phone call between a man and his intimate partner are verboten.

Racism is an ugly thing. Academic attributes of the practice to the contrary, we can’t even decide on the actual definition of the word. What is race anyway? It isn’t just “black and white” anymore. Racism alludes to the prejudices against blacks, whites, Asians, Jews, Muslims, beatniks, tattoo-wearing bikers, and downright dirty people. But the real issue is, what are we allowed to feel, in our heart? And then it follows, what are we allowed to express to our closest allies? If someone is bothered by an African-American family moving into the neighborhood, to whom is he allowed to express that fear, if in fact he has it? Is the mere expression of that fear tantamount to anarchy? And what about just having the thought? Will it soon be a social outrage to even have the thought? The thought could be ill-conceived or borne out of family prejudices, but freedom of thought, and for that matter freedom of hate, is still free.

It is not fair to hold prejudices about people. I work with the homeless, and I can see the pain that those prejudices cause. They are in most cases wrongly conceived, and worse yet, they guide our actions in the most selfish and self-serving way. Once you get past the color or religion of people, in many cases you find just another person, sometimes funny, sometimes engaging, sometimes mean, sometimes not very nice, with a history, probably in pain, but whatever he is or isn’t comes from his family and upbringing, not from his class or genetics.

To paraphrase Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but defend to the death your right to say it.” This should be extended to what a person thinks and feels. What a person thinks or feels about another person or race, or religion, or country is not up for debate in the world forum. And the expression of that feeling if kept in a private fashion should not be fodder for discussion. There was a time in Soviet Russia that a person could be jailed for speaking out – even in his own home – against the government. So too in Nazi Germany. We are teetering very close to that here. If a person is not free to think and to express that thought in his own home, no matter how unpopular that thought is, this is a country that is not free.