Is Free Speech Threatened on Campus?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tensions have been ramping up at universities across the country as students continue to protest the war in Gaza. Reports of antisemitism, islamophobia, and harassment have led to concerns that some students have crossed a line into hateful and threatening speech that requires intervention. Others contend that efforts to clamp down on protests in the name of campus safety suppresses free speech. Within that context, we revisit this debate on adjacent issues from a few years back to see what lessons that can be applied to the current situation: Is Free Speech Threatened on Campus? Arguing Yes: John McWhorter, Linguist and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University; Wendy Kaminer, Writer and Lawyer Arguing No: Shaun Harper, Founder and Executive Director of the USC Race and Equity Center; Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy at Yale University Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:27.1	This is open to debate. I'm John Don Van.
0:32.1	Hi everybody.
0:33.0	Across the U.S. campus protests are hitting new intense highs of hostility between opposing viewpoints on the war in Gaza.
0:40.0	About how that war is unfolding, about its root causes, about who is to blame.
0:44.6	People are saying things to and about each other that are not just challenging,
0:47.9	they are also upsetting.
0:49.8	And with that we are hearing it said that some language goes too far that it crosses the line into harassment and threat and for that reason should not be permitted and perhaps should even be punished.
0:59.3	The competing charges accusations of antisemitism, accusations of Islamophobia, which of course raises the perception of feeling by some that their right to free speech is being challenged.
1:10.0	The dividing lines here are complex. People across the spectrum are not all on the same side on the speech question.
1:16.0	There is a risk of overgeneralizing.
1:18.0	But to the extent that this is an argument between left and right,
1:21.0	it is the left right now, most often raising the complaint
1:24.6	that its speech is being suppressed. They see students arrested on trespassing
1:28.4	charges as being denied their right to protest peacefully against Israel's
1:32.2	recent actions and for many its record
	...

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