Under no circumstance should a private citizen be required to provide service to any person they don't want to. If that's their decision they can be PI'd out of business.
what is going on here
Just private citizens exercising their right to not serve people who aren't white and those who sympathize with them.
FSD has the correct take. Unfortunately you can't legislate racism or homophobia out of people.
correlation does not equal causation but I bet if you look at white people's opinions on race since from 1955 to now in the South you would find that changes in law corresponded with subsequent changes in people's attitudes.
Obviously. That said,if instead the government would have merely prohibited discrimination in public buildings, businesses, services, etc. we could be where we are now. We could also be further behind or ahead. We'll never Know.
It also brings us back to the "greater good v individual liberty" debate.
In a perfectly just society any private citizen would be able to refuse service to anyone they chose to, but that would cause a number of problems of its own with commerce, trade, etc.
But I think headunjun makes a good point to by mentioning the government funded and subsidized utilities, roads, and more that most private businesses use.
