Hate Speech
For decades, activists have proposed that hate speech — speech that disparages a particular group of people — be restricted in certain arenas. In some universities, for instance, student activists have sought to ban speakers who express openly racist or anti-LGBTQ views. While advocates of civil rights and social justice argue that Free Speech is often used to perpetuate stereotypes and hatred against long-marginalized communities, strict interpreters of the First Amendment tend to agree with a famous line from former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote in a 1929 opinion that the principle of Free Speech is not “free thought for those who agree with us, but freedom for the thought that we hate.”
Reflection Questions
- Is there any hope of coming to a national consensus on what constitutes “hate speech” and how to handle it?
- Do social media exacerbate the issue of hateful expression? Should companies, or even governments, step in to curb excesses?
- Does the First Amendment exist to protect the most hateful and heinous forms of expression? Should it?
Context
Supreme Court unanimously reaffirms: There is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment
The Washington Post (June 19, 2017)- Free Speech vs. Hate Speech
NPR (June 15, 2018)