Op-Ed Hate Speech or Free Speech?

Author: Dave Wrangham

Recent incidents of derogatory vandalism have created quite a stir on our campus, and well they should. The statements that were written, of which I've heard a few versions, seem to center around an individual being forcibly told to consume female homosexual buttocks. I don't know if this is right, but if it isn't I'm going to use it anyway as an example of hate speech.

To begin with, I don't know who wrote it, and I want to be very, very, clear on this point: I think that it was a detestable act. However, that being said, do I think that the administration should do anything about it? No.

Of course the administration has the right to punish the culprit, with, according to the student handbook, anything from a warning to expulsion. This is a private institution, the lands are privately held and, of course, the governing body can decide who it wants to allow on its property. And they do. According to the student handbook the administration has the right to punish any student found guilty of 'violence by word or action' against another student.

But is that right? In the quest for maintaining a peaceful, respectful community the administration is willingly infringing on our freedom of speech. Do I think that racially or sexually insensitive slurs are OK? No. But do I think the use of any insensitive terms, all with 'violent', disrespectful definitions, should be grounds for official punishment? No.

What we have created at Middlebury is another 'don't ask, don't tell policy,' and we are discriminating against bigots. Sure we'll let you come here, until you voice your constitutionally protected opinion, at which point we will ask you nicely to leave. We are ensuring a respectful atmosphere with an iron fist, and hiding bigotry behind closed doors where it cannot be addressed. Or the administration is, and that's part of the problem. The responsibility to ensure an open and accepting environment should fall to the students, not the administration. If you see someone being really offensive, tell them. Say it to their face and tell them to stop. Stop hanging out with them and let other people know that they are morally questionable. Social pressure is the most effective tool to fight this, and we are the executors of that pressure. How many people will steadfastly cling to their beliefs that whites are better than blacks when no one on campus will talk to them anymore?

And what are the viewpoints that will get you kicked off this campus? Really, really stupid ones. Uneducated, bigoted, single minded opinions that are held by people all over the world. And instead of attempting any sort of straightforward dialogue with the perpetrators, we give up, we write them off and kick them out. These are opinions that can be countered with scientific evidence showing that mental capacity is not changed by race, gender or sexuality. These are stereotypes that we have overwhelming evidence to fight against, so are we lazy, or do we not believe that our arguments are convincing?

The social atmosphere of Middlebury should be governed by the way that all social atmospheres are governed elsewhere, with individuals using social pressures and reasoned arguments to push their moral agendas, not with the threat of expulsion.

Dave Wrangham 2008.5 hails from Weston, Massachusetts.