Free Speech?

The chalkings on campus create an interesting situation: on the one hand GSA has taken the opportunity to voice gay pride, as is their right. On the other hand, we have anonymous chalkings written in retaliation to GSA, which may be considered as ‘hate’ speech. Yet, do the anonymous artists have that right as well? The first amendment under the Constitutional Bill of Rights states all citizens have the right to free speech. But herein lies the problem of political correctness that is so prominent in our country at the moment. Yes, all are entitled to free speech, until it beings to harm another person or group. So, in effect, are the ‘fighting words’ of anonymous artist wrong?

There will always be speech that may be found offensive by an individual, and the same can be said for a group, and therefore such speech cannot be removed from every situation. However, speech intended to express hate is where we begin to cross the line into inappropriate ‘hate speech.’ Speech to be found offensive is most often time accidental, but speech made with intention to express hate is not acceptable. Now, how to determine whether a statement is made with hateful intention, I do not know. But such speech, along with speech with hateful propositional content and speech associated with harm towards groups are criteria for hate speech in which action must be taken against. In my personal belief, if the college removed the more vulgar retaliation to GSA (which was the correct response), then the Bible verse too should have been removed, the though Bible verse is a much more appropriate response to the GSA chalkings.