Racism and bigotry of any kind flourish when people who don’t hold those poisonous views are silent. The spoken joke in our presence that makes fun of race,sexual preference or one’s religion are not merely harmless attempts at humor they are small pieces of cancer that must be called out. The use of negative stereotypic words to describe others causes great harm to those who are not really different from us. Some have created the belief that we are too sensitive and politically correct and need to go back to a time when free biased speech was acceptable. I believe that most Americans despise racism and all forms of hate speech and do not wish to turn the clock back.We may not have role models in prominent positions who openly condemn bigoted speech but each of us in our own universe need not be silent. i