In the United States of America and in almost all countries, there are laws against harassment, libel, threats, and incitement to commit crimes. These speech codes are for the safety of citizens and are often used to suppress hate speech in private institutions and in the workplace. Speech codes should be allowed on college campuses in order to create a safe environment for people of different sexes, races, sexual orientation, religions, and classes, and to provide an equal learning environment for all by limiting the freedom of speech.…
College students that belong to the majority group usually aren’t fond of being told that their unintentional actions mean they’re actually a racist. Conversely, those who support these checks on language grow more angry, discouraged that their majority counterparts cannot agree with strict rules on communication. Whenever something offensive is spoken, students adopt a victimized sense of self, creating a tirade of upheaval. Rather than developing mob mentality, calling for major change, peaceful discussion should instead be…
With so much social media and other technological outlets available in today’s society, hate speech can also be words that are posted on those sites or spoken in pod casts or news casts etc. In 2014 several Democratic House Representatives “proposed legislation that would require the government to study hate speech on the Internet, mobile phones and television and radio” (Kasperowicz, 2014, para.1). One of the debates…
Universities have the responsibility of teaching students new material that they are not familiar to and the students’ responsibility is to learn and interpret those ideas. The alternative to speech codes is education. If students are taught and informed about matters like offensive language and controversial topics they would have an understanding of how it can affect others. However, what if the violence breaks out because there are no speech codes that can regulate what a student can and cannot say? On many campuses there are already free speech zones where students can express their thoughts, but provided in a previous example verbal violence occurred between the religious speaker and the female student. Is this why the speech codes were created; to prevent students from acting in violence? Speech codes are the very thing that can cause violent reactions. Speech codes are used to restrict students however it is not educating students to do the right thing. Speech codes are also applied to most environments on campus even though in many circumstance they are not needed. Instead of solely restricting students from offensive speech on campus and in lecture school should educate students about offensive speech instead. The reason why educating students about offensive speech is important is because by educating the students the university will be avoiding any future conflicts between students. “Instead of learning that voicing one's opinions invites silencing, students would be taught that spirited debate is a vital necessity for the advancement of knowledge. And they would be taught that the proper response to ideas they oppose is not censorship, but argument on the merits” (Stone and Creeley Para. 11). Educating students uncomfortable topics is important for their…
The goal of academia is to create an atmosphere that allows individuals to seek truth, discover knowledge, and stimulate an ongoing dialogue of inquiry that challenges the status quo (Kaplin & Lee, 2007). To support these ideas, faculty academic freedom, freedom of expression, and the student’s right to freedom of speech are protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment in public institutions. Understanding these concepts have significance for emerging effective community college leaders. The assigned scenario depicts a professor whose controversial book and perspectives of homosexuality not only upset the classroom but spilled out onto campus in the form of rallies and protests. This paper will explore the issues that administrators should consider when responding to incidents of academic freedom and speech for faculty and students.…
What is Hate Speech? “Hate is speech which attacks a person or group on the basis of attributes such as gender, ethnic origin, religion, race, disability, or sexual orientation.” People of all different backgrounds, races, and sexualities have been victims to hate speech, but should hate speech be more defined in laws and whether it should be punishable? I believe that people should have the right to their own opinions and be allowed to state them but I also believe people need to be more tolerant, acceptant, and have filters on what they say. In today’s society hate speech is a sensitive topic but it is still a huge problem that needs to be brought into the light.…
In the Article by the Eric Posner, tilted “Universities Are Right—and Within Their Rights—to Crack Down on Speech and Behavior.” Discussed how students should be protected by any rude or abstract comments from the classroom and in the campus itself. Posner said there will be trigger warnings” (par.1) to students when courses offer content that might upset them; “banned sexual acts that fall short of rape under criminal law but are on the borderline of coercion; and limited due process protections of students accused of violating these rules.” He said that “universities are treating students like children.” (par. 2) Like the students cannot express their opinions to other students or professors about the lesson or to each other. But they must…
Although they have received more press coverage lately, after several high profile incidents occurred at prestigious colleges, Speech Codes have existed substantially since the mid 1980s. As a result of a change in demographics on college campuses, and a wave of political correctness, “one estimate is that between the years of 1986 and 1991 alone, 137 colleges and universities adopted new speech codes”(Jon Gould, The Triumph of Hate Speech Regulation: Why Gender Wins But Race Loses in America, 6 Mich. J. Gender & L. 153, 158 (1999). These codes were born out of changing circumstances on colleges, where more students from traditionally marginalized groups were attending school and integrating into the student body. As a result, administrations…
As stated in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, free speech is where, “Congress shall make no law …abridging the freedom of speech …or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” (Legal Information Institute [LIT], n.d.-f). Despite the brevity, the one sentence that is the First Amendment has proven to be a vague clause that has arbitrarily seen the freedom of hate speech and the persecution of free speech. As pointed out by Tsesis (2016), the First Amendment merely acknowledges the importance of the freedom of speech and of its existence in the United States, but does not define what free speech actually is (p. 1021). The importance of specifying that only “Congress shall make no law” implies that it is the duty of the Supreme Court to determine what is allowed under free speech, as the Constitution was meant to be a be a “living document” to be added on to as the United States changed over time (United States Courts [USC], n.d.-a). However, this poses a problem, as since there have been two and a half centuries of cases decided by the Supreme Court, many people outside of the criminal justice system are dangerously unaware of what exactly their freedom of speech entitles them to. This applies even more so to hate groups, whose…
According to National Criminal Justice Reference Sample, “An estimated 293,800 violent and property hate crime victimizations occurred in 2012 against persons age 12 or older residing in U.S. households.” The first initial response to any threatening action is violence, but it takes an intelligent human being to respond with reasoning which in my opinion is the best option. Hate speech comes from a lack of intelligence or when it regards race, arrogance. In certain cases, when dealing with it, some people do not react because of their mood at that time or the context and who the person is. By using rule consequentialism, our society as a whole would improve if the government would make hate speech illegal. All types of hate speech would…
What would happen if we were to make hate speech illegal? Hate speech can be defined as “verbal, written, and symbolic acts that convey a grossly negative view of particular persons or groups based on their gender, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability.” ("Glossary." Glossary. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. .) Would making hate speech illegal disable it’s force or would it affirm its power?…
In the reading, Free Speech policy has been brought back to the attention as the UC regents would like to prevent the students from prejudice. The new policy proposed was reprimanded by some regents and Jewish group as it seems too weak and the issue has gone way too far. It brings national attention to UC on how to make the universities’ environment more welcoming for multicultural students. Also with the emergence of social media, it is easy for students to broadcast their racist views. Universities have to measure not to regulate too much on an expression of the idea to enrich the opinion but also have to concern on the impact to an individual. Sanctions and punishment are not the possible solutions. An eight-person committee was created…
* Thesis Statement: Should hate speech be censored? Yes hate speech should be censored for numerous of reasons due toff the effects it will bring to our society.…
The first step in understanding this position is understanding the terminology being worked with. Hate speech has varying definitions depending on who defines it. “Hate speech can be defined as speech directed at a historically oppressed religious or racial minority with the intent to insult and demean” (Law, “Know Your Constitution (5): Free Speech and Hate Speech”). There are definitions that can be considered vague. “Hate speech is a communication that carries no meaning other than the expression of hatred for some group, especially in circumstances in which the…
In high school every student has a constraint on their personal freedoms, which are set forth in the Constitution. Most of the students’ constraints are on their freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is defined as the right to express beliefs and ideas without unwarranted government restrictions. A student is not allowed to express his or her beliefs fully because the school rules. There are several cases of students getting expelled from school for expressing their beliefs. In almost all cases of expulsion of a student, the school was in the wrong according to the standard of U.S. Constitution. The school took away the student’s freedom of speech, which is unconstitutional.…