Gamerpunch: BUZZ: Racism is everywhere. Even Forza 2.

This 1957 Mercedes 300SL is just one of several vehicles emblazoned with user-designed hate speech available for purchase through Forza 2's online auction mode.

The debate around an appropriate reaction is pretty evenly split between three points of view:

This kind of stuff shouldn't make it to auction and the user responsible should be banned.
Yeah it's offensive but the user is entitled to their opinion. If you don't like it, don't buy it.
Who cares? I'm not pro-Nazi but that's a nice paint-job.

I've been arguing the first case and I'd like to paraphrase some of my comments over at Joystiq to explain why.

Put yourself in the shoes of a Jewish person who's ancestors have been executed during the holocaust. The car would make you feel physically sick with disgust and outrage. Why should such people have to experience that just so some idiot with nothing to contribute to the world can voice his valueless hate speech?

Others have argued that the car should remain on auction because it is an exercise in free speech, which is protected by the Constitution. I disagree. While the Constitution protects you from negative legal consequences for free speech, the speech in question is hate speech. Though the Constitution protects your right to voice hate speech, it does not protect you from legal consequences, and it has the right to protect others from your speech. No government can stop someone from speaking/writing/creating Forza 2 cars, but they can protect others from your hate speech, and they can punish you for it.

From the Hate Speech Wikipedia entry:

"In the United States, government is broadly forbidden by the First Amendment of the Constitution from restricting speech. Jurists generally understand this to mean that the government cannot regulate the content of speech, but that it can address the harmful effects of speech through laws such as those against defamation or incitement to riot."

Better examples would be 'Discrimination' and 'Inciting violence'. The car does both - the first via the racist comments on the other side of the car (not shown in the screenshot), the second via the mention of White power and the Swastika - both symbols which represent violence against a certain group of people.

Those in charge of the online component of Forza 2 have every right (and in my opinion, the responsibility) to remove such cars from the public domain. I think every vehicle design submitted to the public domain should get a quick once-over from a moderator, and be judged according to the relevant section of Microsoft's Live Online User Policy:

“Publish, distribute or disseminate any topic, name, material, file or information that incites discrimination, hate, or violence towards one person or a group because of their race, religion, nationality, transgender status, homosexual status, or HIV/AIDS status, or that insults the victims of crimes against humanity by contesting the existence of those crimes.”

The "incites discrimination, hate, or violence towards one person or a group because of their race" rule is completely violated here. I hope that in future this kind of stuff won't be made available for public viewing.

My views can be summed up with a quote provided by Justhesh, commenting on the Kotaku coverage:

"The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins."

---Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., former United States Supreme Court justice

[Coverage at 360 Gamer, coverage at Joystiq, coverage at Kotaku]