Hate Speech & Microagressions – Free Speech on Campus, Ep. 4

Speakers
Laura Kipnis,

Release Date
August 8, 2016

Topic

Free Speech
Description

“People who target minorities don’t have a place in this community and should be expelled.”
Can you believe in free speech and still have this stance on hate speech? Professor Laura Kipnis of Northwestern University explains the difference between hate speech and microagressions and how they should be handled on campus.

Free Speech on Campus (playlist): Learn about all of the major issues affecting freedom of speech, open inquiry, and academic freedom on college campuses at hayekandchill.com
Free Speech — Trigger Warnings, Academic Freedom, and More (program): Join Professor Tom Bell, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and the Institute for Justice in this new program, and learn about rights so fundamental, they’re in the very First Amendment.
The Coddling of the American Mind (article): In the name of protecting students’ emotional well-being, college students and administrators are calling for censorship of certain forms of speech. The results are deleterious to students and freedom of thought.
Freedom of Speech: Is Offensive Speech Good For Society? (video): Does freedom of speech still apply to offensive speech? Is it beneficial to have this kind of freedom for people? Can it bring anything good?

>> I’m someone who’s a free speech advocate, but I just don’t feel like I can be a free speech absolutist when it comes to hate speech. Campuses are communities and they’re communities that don’t have often the best history when it comes to minorities. I just feel like more has to be done to make those people feel welcome and if it requires hate speech, cuz I think there’s still aren’t enough instances of actual hate speech that people who target minorities, I think don’t have a place in this community and should be expelled.

So, the thing is that’s a different thing than this category that’s now referred to as microaggressions. The problem with this category of microaggressions is that there are so many things that could fall under this rubric and you just don’t know. So, I think I’ve heard about somebody asking someone where you from?

And I been consider the macroaggression. So I think that these are opportunities for conversation and on both sides of the divide, you want people to be able to say, that offended me and for someone else to say, I didn’t realize that and for there to be a discussion.

So this is what needs to happen on campuses is more discussion and I think less regulation, and also less fear of the discussion. So if regulations are supposed to be there in lieu of these necessary conversations, I don’t think that’s furthering anyone’s educational experience.


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