The_Rise_Of_Hate_Speech_On_Campuses

The Rise Of Hate Speech On Campuses The First Amendment has led Americans to believe in a sense of freedom that does not exist; freedom of speech. Freedom of speech in this country has never been absolute. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater, solicit bribes, make terrorist threats, slander another, or intentionally inflict emotional distress or be obscene in public. What Americans do have a right to is their opinion and the means by which to express it, no matter if the opinion is favorable or not. “In recent years, American campuses have seen a resurgence of racial violence and a corresponding rise in the incidence of verbal and symbolic assault and harassment to which blacks and other traditionally subjugated groups are subjected” (Lawrence, 157). Among the settings of these expressions of intolerance are college and university campuses, where bias incidents have been occurring more since the mid 1980's. Understandably, outrage and demands for change are the responses to these incidents. But given the lack of racial and social diversity among students, faculty and administrators on most campuses; many universities, under pressure to respond to the concerns of those who are the objects of hate have adopted codes or policies prohibiting speech that offends any speech, racist, codes, right, government, students, make, freedom, campuses, believe, way, universities, own, out, opinion, mcmasters, learning, hate, form, bad, work, violent, through, think, talking, student, sexist, same, racism, racial, protect, process, problem, open, one’s