Racism and Freedom of Speech, Essay Example

Introduction

We live in a democracy in which we respect both individual rights and freedom of speech. Equally this has an ethical dimension in terms of consideration for our fellow citizens and to behave in a manner that does not cause others harm or duress.  To an extent, this is governed by the process of law.  University Campuses have seen recent increases in racially motivated expressions. As Chief Editor of the SFSU School Newspaper I am keen to encourage freedom of speech but wish to take a stand on “hate speeches” that are deliberately hurtful and offensive to certain people and minority groups.  In particular, the Malcolm X Mural and the images that this represents.  The stance is that this will not be tolerated or supported by this School newspaper and this paper sets out the reasons supporting that stance.

The Concept of Stereotyping

During the Second World War (1939-45), the National Sociality (Nazi) party in Germany were responsible for stereotyping the Jews living in Europe.  Stereotyping is often sourced in hatred, prejudice and bigotry. The Holocaust was a direct result of a brutal and tyrannical German regime destroying and ethnic cleansing European Jewry through an officially sanctioned, government-ordered, systematic plan of mass annihilation. As many as six million Jews died, almost two-thirds of the Jews of Europe” (Grobman, 1990).  The concept of stereotyping is that of making generalizations about a person or groups of people. In some cases, a picture or representation is made allowing the reader to articulate the blanks. This can be very dangerous and lead to persecution as in the case of the European Jews.  The Nazi regime portrayed the Jews as monsters and dehumanized them as not portraying real human beings. They were seen as fat lazy rich people, often ridiculed with long bended noses and seen to look down on the poorer working classes of Europe.  This was particularly evident in the cartoons that they produced in Poland and Germany in the early stages of the war.  The Malcolm X images of the Star of David amongst $ signs shows a contempt for an entire race of people and is extremely immoral and offensive.  This is not what a democratic country is about.  Given the holocaust the skull and crossbones related to the death of 6 million Jews at the hands of a murderous oppressive regime is anti-democratic.

Jews have been traditionally stereotyped as ‘adept money handlers’.  In early European times, this practice was restricted from both Jews and Arabs as it was considered morally reprehensible by the Christians.  Many Jews became tax collectors and government officials making them easy targets for stereotyping models of hatred.  It is interesting that stereotypes can be presented in two forms, consider the book Jew, representing the intellectual Jewish person and  money lender Jew , the darker side or dehumanising side  (Lawson, 2009).

Racial Hatred

Racial hatred should not be tolerated in a modern, educated and globalized society.  It is steeped in ignorance, bigotry, and lack of education. It is not a standard that should be encouraged or respected in a respected establishment like SFSU.  In this sense the University requires a clear set of policies and guidelines that may be embodied into a school code of ethics that respects freedom of speech but equally respecting the rights of individuals from racial abuse, stereotyping or hate campaigns by unconstitutional behaviour.  The first amendment whilst protecting freedom of speech does not constitute the right that such acts or speeches are  right proper or civil.  (Bok, 1991).  The Supreme Court has historically protected the right of free speech as it has opposed the powers involved in censorship.  Instead supported the doctrine of trying to educate those that perpretrate such acts.  There is equally the concept of why do we have laws or rules  in the first place and one such concept is that they should be for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men[1].

It was Charles H Lawrence,[2] who raised an important debate on racist speeches and actions on US University Campuses and the recent resurgence in racial violence.  He used the famous case illustration of Brown vs. Board of Education  (Lawrence,2009 ).  This examined the concept of inequality in segregated school systems conveying that black children were a caste not fit to attend school with white children.  The Supreme Court has laid out the legal position with regards to protection by the 1^st Amendment and that is words that inflict injury or intended to incite violence are not covered.

The  University has an obligation to protect minority groups attending University from being threatened or abused by racially motivated attacks be these via campaign letters, verbal abuse, posters or such other media that is purposely propagated in order to incite racial hatred and violence.

Stigmatism

Stigma may be defined as discrimination, prejudice or bias against other people who are often deemed inferior in some way e.g. Mental patients, drug addicts, alcoholics, those with HIV/Aids and in some cases gender related alike that of homosexuals or lesbians. Women’s rights campaign is a specific example of stigmatism that has been perpetuated over hundreds of years. The struggle for women’s rights remains an international concern, even to this very day.  In particular the rights of the African woman who toils night and day amidst almost intolerable conditions of poverty.  They suffer extremely difficult social and prejudicial conditions.  Despite all of this, women continue to fight for their human rights, race eloquence and tenacity.  Religion is also a contribution factor in denying women their basic rights.  The Islamic world seems particularly at fault here, unable to break away from outmoded tradition.  Prejudice here seems more focused towards women in the lower classes of society.  Whereas a more affluent women are able to gain much more independence and freedom. (Smith, 2002)

One might argue that stigmatism is justified in certain cases i.e. that associated with terrorists for example.  However, this is a difficult line of thought to follow, as one man’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.  Equally, there is the concept of scapegoats and for example Hitler’s Nazi party portrayal of the Jewish people in order that he might have the excuse to embark on a path of ethnic cleansing.  My personal opinion is that the very concept of stigmatism is born out of ignorance and a lack of both knowledge and tolerance. Any sort of discriminatory behaviour is ultimately dangerous and can lead to serious consequences that depict the dark side of human behaviour.  “The persecution of homosexual men, transvestites, and “race defilers” in Nazi Germany carried the traditional religious and psychiatric stigmatization of sexual nonconformists in Europe to its logical extreme” (Haeberle, 1981)

Conclusion

Despite the importance and need to encourage freedom of speech, I believe that we still need to retain some ethical guidelines over what is deemed responsible behaviour from our students. This is not to impose levels of censorship but the need to make people reconsider their actions by policies of intervention and debate.  As an educational Institute, it is important that we engage both controversial and extremist points of view. This needs to be accomplished in a professional and responsible manner within the framework of our democratic and constitutional rights.

Stereotyping, stigma and insulting behaviour is essentially born of ignorance and regrettably shows a lack of education on behalf of those participating in such behavioural tendencies. This does however, over step the mark where it is inciting violence, disturbing the peace in the University or in violation of University rulings. In this regard, it then becomes a disciplinary matter for the University Administration to deal with.

Works Cited

Bok, Derek. “Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus.” Boston Globe (1991).

Grobman, Gary M. Stereotypes and Prejudices. 1990. 7 2 2010 <http://remember.org/guide/History.root.stereotypes.html>.

Haeberle, Erwin J. “Stigmata of Degeneration”:.” Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 6 (1/2 (1981): 135-139.

Lawrence, Charles H. “The debates on placing limits on racist speech must not ignore the damage it does to victims.” Chronicle of Higher Education (2004): 1-4.

Lawson, Dominic. Can Sir Alan fire the old Jewish stereotype? 14 6 2009. 8 2 2010 <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/dominic_lawson/article6493531.ece>.

Smith, Michael. “Stigma.” Advances in psychiatric treatment (2002): 317-325.

[1] Quoted : Douglas Bader, British Air Ace pilot World War

[2] Professor of Law, University of Hawai’i at M?noa Centennial Professor