Summary “On Racist Speech”
In his essay, “On Racist Speech,” Charles Lawrence discusses the happenings of racial violence in colleges and universities. He speaks of university and college officials that are doing nothing to stop the racial violence against minorities. Lawrence's essay is focused on the idea that racist speech should be regulated if it hinders a student's ability to learn. He references the case of
Brown v. Board of Education
, where he states that the "message" of segregation and the message that it sends to black students is "in essence" offensive speech.
Lawrence also states how how he is troubled by the reappearance of racial harassment on college campuses. Lawrence asserts that racist speech should not be protected by the First
Amendment. This is because some racist speech is used to harm and/or hurt people, not to express one's opinion or start conversation. He speaks of how the courts claim that offensive speech may not be regulated in public spaces. Although Lawrence, himself, feels that minority students should not have to stay in their rooms to avoid racial harassment.
Lawrence also goes on to speak of how some university officials, who are trying to follow their policies and protect students, are being given the bad name “thought police.” He feels that there is nothing wrong with doing one’s job to protect the rights of others. Even though these policies only help with regulating facetoface insults.
Lawrence talks about “fighting words,” words that by their very assertion impose injury or intend to violate peace. According to Lawrence and the Supreme Court, these types of words are not protected by the First Amendment. He also says that with most cases, members of these
Word Count 643
minority groups come to the realization that they will not win if they respond to any of the racist remarks so they are then forced to remain silent and obedient.
He argues that universities should ensure that minority students are safe in all common areas. Lawrence expresses some of the opposing views as :
"We recognize that minority groups suffer pain and injury as a result of racist speech, but we must allow this hate mongering speech for the benefit of society as a whole. Freedom of speech is the lifeblood of our democratic system. It is especially important for minorities because often it is their only vehicle for rallying support for the redress of their grievances. It will be impossible to formulate a prohibition so precise that it
FREEDOM OF SPEECH From "The Reader's Companion to American History" The modern American conception of freedom of speech derives from the principles of freedom of the press (mainly in the context of political criticism) and freedom of religion as they developed in England, starting in the seventeenth century. The arguments of John Milton and others on the importance of an unlicensed press, and of John Locke and others on religious toleration, were the precursors to the idea of freedom of speech, although…
variations of language (Risch 1987). Women are status conscious, restricted by standard forms of speech due to non-standard forms being considered masculine (Trudgill 1974). However, Christie (2010:171) states this to be the reason for being regarded as the powerless sex, she says by conforming to conceptualised and culture-specific ‘lady-like’ speech is, in effect, learning to use the powerless speech style. Today’s society has given rise to a new kind of female: ‘a ladette’, supposedly a reflection…
promised freedom of speech, in public schools this should be limited due to the protection of the students. Administrators should make the final decision on whether a shirt or an action of the student is appropriate or harmful. Although people are for the right to freely express their opinions, school administrators should determine what students can and cannot do. Administrators should make the final decision on whether a clothing item a student is wearing is offensive or not because students…
they would only become involved with the war if there was a threat that Germany would invade. However, the Provisional Government wanted to continue with the war as they believed that more land (won from the war) would help improve Russia. The June offensive was yet another mistake the provisional government made as the army collapsed, this lead to the July days which then lead to many of the Russian soldiers deserting. These many mistakes meant that many people believed that Russia needed a new Provisional…
song? The sound is a familiar one among those of us that listen to the radio, in particular Rap/hip-hop music stations. This noise is heard because it’s used to bleep out/censor the word that was previously there; the word was most likely ‘bad’ or offensive. Censorship is a growing concern for our society, whether it’s because of the lack of censorship or too much. To understand censorship, it’s important that you know exactly what it is. According to an article by Jonathan Alter, “Let’s Stop Crying…
Censorship In The American School System Censorship is, by definition, the restraint of speech or other public communication which may be considered offensive, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body. It happens in a variety of different situations including speech, books, music, films, the press, radio, television, and the Internet. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship) Censorship has become…
F | | | | | | M F | | | | | | M F | | | | | | M F | | | | | | Operationalization: The present study, a content analysis, seeks to analyze curse words use in popular films The King’s Speech and Argo. Both films were viewed in their entirety by coders who noted curse word use by any character and the characteristics of the character engaged in such use. The unit of analysis for this study is the individual characters of the films…
in. Another aspect of taboo words is the euphemisms that are used in order to avoid obscene speech. This paper will focus on the f-word which replaces the word fuck, and as the study will show it also have other meanings and usages. First, it is a fact that from now on the use of curse words have become part of male and female’s everyday language. No longer is it uncommon to hear a person use an offensive word to express their emotions. Not only is it…
are challenged with the best intentions—to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information..." "Often challenges are motivated by a desire to protect children from “inappropriate” sexual content or “offensive” language..." "In his book Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other, Nat Hentoff writes that “the lust to suppress can come from any direction.” He quotes Phil Kerby, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times…
Amendment Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication that may be objectionable or harmful, to the general population. Censorship is a cause of issues involving Freedom of Speech that is protected in the first amendment. From the beginning this freedom has caused controversy and with controversy we see the federal government get involved. A popular example of censorship protected under the first amendment and freedom of speech is the Westboro Baptist church incidents. In…