By Students and faculty gathered in the University Student Union ballroom for the “Hate Speech on the American Campus in a Post 9/11 Society” event at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“What can we do about hate speech?” was the main question for the speakers at the event. Craig Smith, a communications professor and the director of the Center for First Amendment Studies at Cal State Long Beach, was one of the speakers who had an answer.
He said the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution plays a major part in hate speeches. Smith talked about the Doe v. University of Michigan case, where a student was kicked out for making racist comments, but there were no real consequences for the student’s actions. The case showed that campuses are having a hard time with hate speech codes and, as a result, campuses make first-time offenders take a class about hate speech awareness.
“More speech is better than less speech,” Smith said.
The second speaker, Gary C. Williams, who is a professor at Loyola Law School and the president of the ACLU Southern California Board, agreed with many of Smith’s ideas, but had more to add.
He said everyone has the right to learn, read and express opinions on any subject without fear of punishment and that the First Amendment should be made to protect speakers.
Williams also said the best remedy for someone who makes comments, like the pope did about Islam being violent religion, is more speech. He said he believes that students should speak out against hate speech just like the students at San Pedro Community College. The editor of their school newspaper, a Junior Nazi who made racist remarks, was not punished for it. The students showed their unhappiness by not reading his newspaper for a whole semester.
Williams also talked about how when people are threatened by words or actions they do not take certain threats that come from our own country as seriously as threats that come from the outside.
He said that we should “test our commitment when someone from outside speaks out.”
An example of this would be the 9/11 attacks on the United States because he said we did not take any serious action until we were personally attacked from the outside.
At the end of Williams’ speech, a question and answer session was held where students were allowed to ask any questions about hate speech.
