Harm, not Offense (Vera Speaking)
				Source		MAIN PATH: Dee
			John		Vera	Malik	Dee

John and Fred, I am going to kill both of you. This isn't the first time that you have suggested that the problem with racist speech is that it offends African Americans, especially African American students on campus.

The complaint that Malik and I are making is not that people are offended. The problem is not offense. The problem is HARM: various significant forms of harm accomplished by using words. That's what we're fighting about. It's not a question of people being offended. Basically, what you and Dee fail to understand is how language or speech constructs social reality, including some very undesirable realities. Try to think of it this way:

• The language we use to refer to other people creates our understanding of those people and our attitudes toward them. Our understanding of people in turn determines how we treat them. It is in this way, through language, that our speech creates and perpetuates the hierarchies of race and sex and class that do so much harm.

• It is because of the crucial role of speech in constructing these (and other) social realities, that the silencing imposed by hate speech is so important. Because they are silenced, women and blacks and many others are not able to participate equally in the construction of social patterns and institutions. If you believe as I do that everyone has a basic moral right to participate equally in the construction of our common culture, then the suppression of hate speech is both required and justified in order to make that right effective.

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