Hate Cannot be Tolerated

Who decides what is considered offensive speech? Does hate speech result in violence?
Is all form of speech protected by the Constitution? Richard Delgado, an author and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh writes that students' civil liberties are highly important and that students have a right to a non-hostile environment. Schools are being forced to take action in response to the conduct of some who chose to launch verbal assaults on certain minority groups.

The author, Mr. Delgado explains that civil liberties activists, students, faculty and administrators fear that restricting speech in any form is a violation of the First Amendment right. He writes that a broad ban on certain words is not effective, and would limit conversations containing controversial subjects.This action could also be declared unconstitutional, as it should be, declares the author. Mr, Delgado explains that these types of conversations are not considered hate speech by most, including the court system.

Federal court has enacted a "Hostile Environment" (127) law against schools that tolerate environments of hate. The author states that even with this law in effect, hate speech still exists in schools in the form of graffiti or fliers. In these cases, Mr. Delgado explains the victims of hate speech cannot talk back against the hate speaker because they are written anonymously. This form of delivering hate speech is not meant to be open for discussion and sent by "cowardly speakers"(127). In some cases when the victim did respond, a hate crime was committed in retaliation, explains the writer. In schools where these crimes were publicized, there was a drop in enrollment for students of color according to the author. Mr. Delgado writes that Federal Courts are aware of the events taking place on campuses today and have allowed punishments to take place for actions such as cross burning and hate speeches. The author supports this action and states that the conduct of "bullies and bigots" must be regulated in some way (128).



Works Cited

Delgado, Richard. “Hate Cannot Be Tolerated."
Goshgarian, Gary. "What Matters in America." New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 126-128.