I want to make two more points. Yes, the university is a
special place. Yes, its main purpose is education. But there is
more to consider.
- First, you haven't shown that the shouting and graffiti interfere
seriously with education. They may or they may not. It's up to you to offer evidence. There was a lot
of hostility years ago to Jewish students on some campuses; but
they did very well educationally. People can sometimes rise above these
things. You're assuming that black Americans are weak and will
be crushed by it. Don't be so sure.
- Second, the code that the university has adopted proves one of
the points already made. It is easy for us to get on a slippery
slope when we start banning speech. Look at what has happened already. We started with several incidents of racist speech. I condemn that just as you do. But look at the code.
It goes way beyond racist speech. Even in the first version
adopted it prohibits abusive speech in twelve different
classifications. Think about it. It covers race, ethnicity, religion,
sex, sexual orientation, creed, national origin, ancestry, age,
marital status, handicap, or Vietnam-era veteran status. Can you
believe it? We started out concerned with racist speech and ended
up prohibiting abusive speech based on marital status.
What's that all about? When did marital status become a major
social problem? When did married (or unmarried) people become an oppressed group? Give me a break!
If we can prohibit twelve different categories of speech in
the first version, what will the code prohibit in ten years?
What is to prevent the code from banning criticism on the basis
of height, diet, hair color, body odor, or whatever? We need
a principled way to decide this, and we don't have it. That's
one of the problems we have to be concerned about; and the way
to solve it is to get rid of the code now.
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