Will Codes Work? (Dee Speaking)
						MAIN PATH: John
			John		Vera	Malik

As you know, I believe that a code forbidding a very narrow range of face-to-face verbal harassment may have some value. But that value would be quite limited. It would eliminate the pain felt in the immediate situation by the specific victims. I think it leaves the major problems of racism and the major problems of African American students untouched.

More importantly, I am really concerned about your view, Malik. In essence, you are going back to what the courts once called a pernicious tendency test. Under such a test, once we have determined that speech causes harm, it can be regulated just like anything else. The concept of a right to speak is lost.

It has taken us most of the 20^th century to get away from that kind of a test. I agree with you that speech harms African Americans in many ways; but I am pleading for solutions that do not regulate speech in any but the narrowest ways.

The important question then becomes "What can we do to reduce the problems of race and sex on campus that does not involve regulating speech beyond very narrow rules against harassment?"

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