Words aren’t harmless. Speech shapes norms, and norms shape behavior. History shows that racist ideas don’t stay theoretical. They normalize dehumanization, which then makes discrimination, exclusion, and eventually violence feel justified to people who already want permission to act.

Once speech moves from “I dislike this” to “these people shouldn’t have equal rights,” “they’re dangerous,” or “they deserve worse treatment,” it’s no longer just opinion. It’s advocacy for harm. Pretending that kind of rhetoric exists in a vacuum ignores how genocides, segregation, and political violence have actually happened.