Fred - The University Code

The University Code
(Fred Speaking)

MAIN PATH: Ann

Ann Dee

Let's look at university speech codes in general and the new code at this university in particular.

It seems to me that this is a case in which we should protect some undesirable speech for the reasons John has suggested. I think Vera is right that calling someone "nigger" or printing graffiti like the one in the physics building certainly doesn't help us search for truth or practice democracy. In other words, this 'speech' has little or no value. But who says we should only protect speech that has value or that we think has value? This speech may be outside the "core" that John referred to. But we should still protect it for two reasons:

We shouldn't set ourselves or anyone else up as the people who decide which speech has value. Those decisions could easily become politicized and that could lead to banning more and more speech.

We need to protect speech outside the core in order to guarantee that we will not restrict speech within the core.

Racist speech is a perfect example of the undesirable speech outside the core that we should protect in order to protect the core.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't approve of what has been done here at the university. I might even support an educational effort on campus to try to change the attitudes of people like those who did these things. I'm only saying that we shouldn't adopt a speech code as a way of solving the problem. And I must say that I'm surprised that somebody like you, Ann, as liberal as you usually are on free speech and so many other things, would be soft on this. Hey, maybe I'm the real liberal?

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The University Code (Fred Speaking)

The University Code
(Fred Speaking)