The most remarkable discussion in my classes this year involved a student from Ghana and her classmate from Germany. We were discussing whether an American Nazi has a right to share his group’s pamphlets in non-work areas of the workplace.
My student from Ghana contended that we all need to grow a thicker skin. We cannot regulate hate speech out of existence—it will always be there, she said. When we hear hate speech, we should not ban it nor remain silent. We must speak out against it.
My student from Germany said that her nation has been spared the ugliness and raw hatreds that the U.S. and other nations have suffered due to its strict regulation of racial and religious hate speech. These laws have preserved civility in Germany—more so than in the U.S., UK, France and elsewhere. She compared hate speech to a genie that, once freed from its bottle, is very hard to contain.
I will think about this debate as Portland braces for a weekend of protests by Alt-Right hate groups.
To my German student’s point, unbridled hate speech fueled the rage of the man who murdered two defenders of a Muslim woman. Would he have reached the point of derangement if we had Germany’s speech codes?
To my Ghanaian student’s point, if we limit hate speech, will we know where and when to draw a line that preserves America’s unique traditions of free speech?
I welcome your thoughts at m-leroy@illinois.edu.
Photo Credit: Karlie Kloss, Lifehack Quotes
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