Hotel Decides Not to Host White Supremacist Conference
Jesse Tabit August 21, 2015
A Guesthouse Inn hotel in Nashville cancelled reservations for an upcoming Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) event scheduled for this weekend after being made aware of the group’s beliefs. The CCC, a white supremacist organization, is thought to have inspired the actions of Dylann Roof (pictured), who murdered nine African-American churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., in June.
“This is definitely not what the Guesthouse Inn represents,” said Michelle James, the hotel’s director of sales. “The group will not be at our hotel, nor will they ever be at our hotel.”
“It is an absolutely shocking commentary on the state of freedom of speech in this country,” said CCC spokesman Jared Taylor according to NBC News. “Even at the height of the McCarthy era, the Communist Party could rent a hotel and hold a meeting,”
Guesthouse Inn is owned by Red Lion Hotels Corporation.
For more information on this story, visit Yahoo News.
payam81, you can say "no business should have the right to discriminate", but they do. Discrimination and free speech are not related in any way. To simplify: Freedom of speech means you can say what you want, as long as is it is not slanderous or endangers public safety (yelling "fire" in a crowded theater). I can still fire you if I disagree with you, choose not to shop at your business, start an online protest against you. None of these things or a host of others mean your "Free Speech" is being violated. Only the government can do that by assigning punishment for your speech. Discrimination by legal definition means discriminating against someone because of one of the legally recognized protected statuses. Examples: race, religion, gender, etc. Believing that your race is superior to another does not make you a class protected against discrimination. As a business owner I can discriminate against those morons all day long. I can also discriminate against you if I don't like the color of your t-shirt. But not because I refuse to serve Lutherans. And I have not threatened your right to free speech. I have just refused to let you spew it in my business and offend my other customers who might then put me out of business by refusing to patronize my establishment.
I disagree. While I certainly don't condone any sort of 'supremacist' groups, as long as they are allowed to congregate legally, no business should have the right to discriminate against them based on disagreement on beliefs.
+1 JackE Freedom of Speech is a widely misunderstood concept....
He's correct that they have a right to free speech so long as it is nonviolent, but Guesthouse Inn is not the government and can choose who to serve. At least that's how it worked before the gay cake case. Not enough people understand freedom of speech.