Hate Speech

Since the adoption of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the concept of freedom of speech has constantly been challenged. Outside of school grounds, many would argue that hate speech is nevertheless free speech and therefore should not be regulated. However, providing an equal educational opportunity for all has become the issue when the question of what constitutes hate speech is brought to college campuses. In light of recent verbal attacks by students against their peers on college campuses, many universities have sought to regulate hate speech. Nonetheless, although we have to recognize that it is impossible for the education system to solve every problem, it is important to consider how the classroom setting can help to address the problem of hate speech. Therefore, in my opinion, hate speech on college campuses should not be regulated but rather, it should be used as a platform to educate college students. With regards to what constitutes hate speech, there has been on-going debate about how broadly or narrowly hate speech should be defined. However, the truth is, it is very difficult to define the boundaries and determine what exactly constitutes hate speech. This is essentially because hate speech is highly subjective. In a diverse nation such as America where there is a rich mixture of races and religions, everybody grew up in very different cultures and backgrounds with very different experiences. That is to say, words that offend one may not necessarily offend others in the same way or with the same degree of impact. This suggests that hate speech can be interpreted in different ways by different people and therefore, it would be very difficult for colleges to put in place any restrictions on hate speech as there are a lot of grey areas when it comes to defining it. In light of the situation, instead of trying to avoid the issue by regulating hate speech, colleges should use this opportunity to face the problem and educate college