Summary of On Racist Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary of On Racist Speech - Essay Example Unfortunately universities have not been able to provide black and other minority students the protection which the Constitution guarantees them. Racism or racist speech is only tackled when it takes the form of face to face harassment or assaulting speech or acts on an individual or small group of persons. The Supreme Court has held that words which " by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace" are not protected by the First Amendment. Blacks and minorities have to be given recourse to the same education, facilities and security all over the campus from every form of racism, harassment, pain, injury and suffering. Against the backdrop of democracy, we should be sure to strike a balance with our concern, for free flow of ideas and the democratic process dependent on that flow and our desire to further the cause of equality. We have to recognize the fact that racial speech inflicts real harm and then with an equal commitment to equality and free speech can we come to some reconciliation. Debating and arguing we risk making the First Amendment an instrument of domination rather than a vehicle of liberation. Courts have, for example, exempted from the protection of the First Amendment obscene speech, speech that disseminates, official secrets, that defames or libels another person, or that is used to form