Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Contact with People Who Have "Offensive" Views   [George Leef]

Writing on NRO today, Frederick Hess examines the recent flap at the University of Maryland, where a student wearing a pro-Israel shirt was indignantly told by a cashier at the Maryland Food Collective that "Your shirt offends me. I won't ring you up." 

The student was able to get another cashier to complete the transaction, but the episode led to a big flap over the rights of customers and cashiers. A spokesperson for the Food Collective says, "no one should have to have contact with people whose views they find hurtful." 

I'm not entirely unsympathetic, but first of all this should be a matter of contract between employer and employee. Most employers care whether grumpy workers drive away prospective customers because of their political hypersensitivity and they have the right to insist that workers refrain from turning sales into little political dramas. If this coop, however, chooses to allow its workers to protest by demanding that another worker serve customers whose views are "offensive," that's all right. Customers who don't want to run the risk of such confrontations are free to shop elsewhere. 

What I'm wondering is whether the true-blue leftists who insist on the right to avoid contact with people who hold offensive views would be consistent. If, for example, a business owner didn't want to deal with labor union officials, could he exercise the same right as an ideologically-charged coop worker?    

08/14 01:19 PMShare