“It’s one thing to say ‘No one’s in favor of hate speech,’ but what is it?” Emory University School of Law Professor Tom Arthur asked at Emory’s first Freedom of Expression forum.
This question formed the crux of the Jan. 26 evening panel and discussion held in Winship Ballroom and proved to be an extremely controversial topic, illustrating the campus-wide disagreement on the issue of free speech.
Ed Lee, Emory University director of debate, led the panel of Emory University School of Law Professors Tom Arthur and Alexander “Sasha” Volokh, and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) Director Azhar Majeed. After responding to questions from Lee, the panelists opened the floor up for questions from and open discussion with the audience, in which many opposing viewpoints surfaced.
The Panel
“Think about epithets,” Arthur said. While epithets, such as the N-word, could be considered fighting words, they are protected by the First Amendment.
Majeed emphasized that because some “hate speech” is constitutionally protected, it can be difficult for universities to know when to regulate it on forums, such as the smartphone application Yik Yak.
“Even if it’s particularly nasty and targeting individuals or groups, that doesn’t rise to the level of actual harassment, discrimination or disruption of the educational process,” he said.
Nonetheless, Majeed said that it is important for universities to find the line between protected speech and unprotected speech, adding that credible threats to safety or well-being should be regulated.
Arthur disagreed with Majeed, saying that protected speech cannot be regulated without severe consequences
“At some point, people will be afraid to say anything, because you don’t know what hate speech is.”
Volokh said that private universities should be able to choose their own unique freedom of expression policies.
“We won’t figure out which policies are good and bad unless we can debate these issues without having to worry that we are going to be thrown into jail or kicked out of the University, he said. “ That is absolutely essential.”
Volokh added that restricting viewpoints equates to “essentially shutting down the life of the mind. You are saying that you can think about this issue; here’s the viewpoint you can think about it from.”
The Discussion
Business School junior Lolade Oshin, a representative of the Black Student Association (BSA) at Emory, ramped up the discussion when she took the floor after the panel opened up for discussion.
“The reason why I’m here at Emory, predominantly, is because I want to make the world a safer place for people who look like me,” she said. “I want to work to change the definition of terms like racism, freedom of speech, etc., because I’m tired of these terms that affect my life every day being defined by people who don’t know the effect of them.”
She turned to Frank Lechner, professor of sociology at Emory who was sitting in the crowd, and asked if he wrote a recent editorial for The Emory Wheel. In his Dec. 1 editorial, Lechner wrote that the University lacked important evidence to assess claims made by the Black Students at Emory.
“Yeah. Not a fan of it,” Oshin said. “I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it because it made me not want to get out of bed.”
Then, pointing to a student across the room, she expressed how a comment the student had made at a Yik Yak hearing triggered her.
After some silence, Oshin said, “It’s uncomfortable, right? … That’s what it’s like to be black at Emory. Every single day, people are attacking you. They may not be using your name, but they’re talking about you.”
Majeed responded that he fears that stripping someone of their First Amendment rights may backfire, pushing them to become more bigoted.
Arthur and Volokh argued that the students calling for censorship are overly sensitive and unrealistic.
“You’re going to graduate, you’re going to go out into the real world, and who’s going to be out in the real world? President Donald Trump,” Volokh said.
However, College sophomore Deandre Miles-Hercules responded that students need to have personal responsibility.
“If you want to say something stupid and ignorant, that’s fine – say it on Facebook. If you stand that strongly behind your opinions, say it on a public forum,” he said.
Miles-Hercules said the forum’s approach to the issue was too semantical. “It’s about making people’s lives better, not looking at this policy, regulation and law school terminology,” he said. “It’s about people, and let’s keep it that way.”
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and the brain initiative are the worst scams ever perpetrated on the American people. Former U. S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin Warns: Biochips Hazardous to Your Health: Warning, biochips may cause behavioral changes and high suicide rates.
State Attorney Generals are to revoke the licenses of doctors and dentists that implant chips in patients. Chip used illegally for GPS, tracking, organized crime, communication and torture. Virginia state police have been implanting citizens without their knowledge and consent for years and they are dying! Check out William and Mary’s site to see the torture enabled by the biochip and the Active Denial System. See Terrorism and Mental Health by Amin Gadit or A Note on Uberveillance by MG & Katina Michael or Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence by Springer or Mind Control,
Microchip Implants and Cybernetics. Check out the audio spotlight by Holosonics. The truth is the biochip works like a sim card. It received pulsed modulated laser beams and millimeter wave which it
converts into electromagnetic waves that your brain interprets into digital images and sound. It then takes what your brain sees and hears and converts electromagnetic waves into digital and acoustic waves that a computer translates into audio and video. In other words, it allows law enforcement to see what you see, hear what you hear and communicate directly with your brain.
“Former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) director and now Google Executive, Regina E. Dugan, has unveiled a super small, ingestible microchip that we can all be expected to swallow by 2017. “A means of authentication,” she calls it, also called an electronic tattoo, which takes
NSA spying to whole new levels. She talks of the ‘mechanical mismatch problem between machines and humans,’ and specifically targets 10 – 20 year olds in her rant about the wonderful qualities of this new technology that can stretch in the human body and still be functional. Hailed as a ‘critical shift for
research and medicine,’ these biochips would not only allow full access to insurance companies and government agencies to our pharmaceutical med-taking compliancy (or lack thereof), but also a host of other aspects of our lives which are truly none of their business, and certainly an extension of the
removal of our freedoms and rights.” Google News
The ARRA authorizes payments to the states in an effort to encourage Medicaid Providers to adopt and use “certified EHR technology” aka biochips. ARRA will match Medicaid $5 for every $1 a
state provides. Hospitals are paid $2 million to create “crisis stabilization wards” (Gitmo’s) where state police torture people – even unto death. They stopped my heart 90 times in 6 hours. Virginia Beach EMT’s were called to the scene. Mary E. Schloendorff, v. The Society of New York Hospital 105 N. E. 92, 93 (N. Y. 1914) Justice Cardozo states, “every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation
without his patient’s consent, commits an assault, for which he is liable in damages. (Pratt v Davis, 224 Ill. 300; Mohr v Williams, 95 Minn. 261.) This case precedent requires police to falsely arrest you or kidnap you and call you a mental health patient in order to force the implant on you. You can also be forced to have a biochip if you have an infectious disease – like Eboli or Aids. Coalition of Justice vs the City of Hampton, VA settled a case out of court for $500,000 and removal of the biochip. Torture is
punishable by $1,000 per day up to $2 million; Medical battery is worth $2.05 million. They told my family it was the brain initiative. I checked with the oversight board, and it is not! Mark Warner told me it was research with the Active Denial System by the College of William and Mary, the USAF, and state and local law enforcement. It is called IBEX and it is excruciating. I have had 3 surgeries at the site of the implant and need another. It causes cancer! I’ve been tortured for 8 years by Virginia law enforcement.