Racism, sexism and bigotry aren’t dead — they’re just in hiding.
Internet anonymity has become the last bastion of hateful idiocy in our culture. It’s reminiscent of Ku Klux Klan members masking their faces behind white hoods. In the 90s, Klan members fought for the right to hide their identities for fear of reprisal, harassment or losing their jobs due to their ideology.
And reprisal is a very real possibility for those inclined toward online racism. A blog called Racists Getting Fired came online after the “Black Lives Matter” protests and sought to out racist Twitter users, many of whom were fired after their employers received calls from readers of the blog.
The ability to hide behind anonymity brings out the worst in people—or, perhaps, the worst people—and the latest reminder of that is Yik Yak, the location-based bulletin board, smartphone application.
UNC Chapel-Hill is considering blocking access to the app through campus Wi-Fi in response to hurtful comments posted on the platform. Such a ban would be purely symbolic, since students could still access the app through a mobile data connection.
The racism and bigotry on Yik Yak is deplorable. But banning the platform, symbolically or otherwise, is the wrong approach.
The American Civil Liberties Union states that “Speech that deeply offends our morality or is hostile to our way of life warrants the same constitutional protection as other speech because the right of free speech is indivisible: When one of us is denied this right, all of us are denied.
The protection of free expression must extend to people of all viewpoints, no matter how vulgar. The purpose of such a universal protection is to prevent the viewpoints of political minorities from being censored by political majorities.
For many people, however, philosophical arguments do little to suture the wounds inflicted by hateful rhetoric. I realize it’s easy for me as a white, middle-class male to make this type of argument. It’s easy to overlook the emotional toll seeing that kind of vitriol must take.
But there’s another, more practical argument for protecting free expression, and it starts with a practical problem in banning offensive speech. As the ACLU also states, “College administrators may find speech codes attractive as a quick fix, but as one critic put it: ‘Verbal purity is not social change.’ Codes that punish bigoted speech treat only the symptom: The problem itself is bigotry.”
Banning hate speech or platforms on which it’s spewed doesn’t get rid of racism, sexism or bigotry.
Louis Brandeis, a former associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants” in reference to governmental transparency, but the analogy is just as strong as it relates to hate speech. How can we address underlying attitudes of racism, sexism and bigotry if we constantly attempt to keep them in the shadows?
The Westboro Baptist Church picketing soldiers’ funerals with its message of hate and intolerance is certainly hurtful to some and offensive to most. As a result, people of all walks, of diverse political and social views, came together to rebuke such views. Being reminded of the existence of hatred has the ancillary effect of starting a dialogue in which we have the opportunity to stand up against ideologies we find repulsive.
The best revenge against hate speech, as the ACLU puts it, is “more speech—not less.” Professors at Colgate University recently took this advice to heart, addressing their own campus’ Yik Yak woes with a barrage of supportive messages on the platform, each signing his or her name to every post.
Changing attitudes takes time, but if our goal is to evolve into a more tolerant, accepting society, we should avoid ineffective, quick-fix bans in favor of the dialogues, relationships and education which affect real change.
And lastly, a challenge: if you’ve posted hurtful comments on Yik Yak, or elsewhere, write me an email (crdenni3@ncsu.edu) and defend them. Sign your name to it. Stand behind your views. If you can’t, or aren’t willing, maybe they’re not views worth holding.
