Someone needs to inform our society’s “best and brightest” that “hate speech” is not a form of illegal speech. Free speech often is hateful speech. That’s what the 1977 SCOTUS decision National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie was all about. And there are others. Efforts to shut down “hate speech” are bogus, euphemistic efforts to shut down free speech.
Students at Duke University are criticizing a university official for affirming that the First Amendment protects hate speech following several racially-charged incidents.
According to The Duke Chronicle, Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Moneta posted a tweet encouraging those who believe that colleges and universities should “prohibit hate speech” to read a book called Free Speech on Campus by Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley law school, and Howard Gillman, chancellor and professor of law at UC-Irvine.
“Freedom of expression protects the oppressed far more than the oppressors,” Moneta added.
The tweet came one day after Moneta announced that a student who had posted “deeply offensive and racist terminology” on Facebook will not be disciplined.
“Though the language itself may not be in violation of any Duke policies on speech and expression, we nonetheless find its use to be deplorable,” Moneta explained, adding that “while there may not be formal student conduct consequences for his actions, we are aware of and acknowledge those students and student groups holding him accountable for his behaviors.”
According to the Chronicle, Moneta was referring to a snapchat posted by a student in the “Duke Memes for Gothicc Teens” Facebook group which displayed the word “n*****,” which came on the heels of another recent incident in which racial slurs were posted outside the door of a Duke apartment complex.
Despite calls for action, Moneta doesn’t plan to implement any major campus-wide initiatives relating to the series of racist incidents, saying he doesn’t believe the incidents are representative of the student body.
THE ABYSS BECKONS! 