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A Generation of Hate:
Bias Crimes and Hate Speech Issues, 1977-2003.
Hate Speech
Exhibit Overview Hate is not a new concept. Racism, intolerance, bigotry, and violence are issues the United States has faced throughout its history. They are also issues that have received new attention in recent decades. Hate is discussed not only in public forums and on college campuses, but on the Internet. Bias crimes and hate speech as formally-defined concepts, now more than ever, are the subjects of legislation, of Supreme Court decisions, and of scholarly debate.

A Generation of Hate: Bias Crimes and Hate Speech Issues, 1977-2003 features print and electronic “hate” resources available in Schaffer Library, beginning with the planning of a Neo-Nazi rally in Skokie, Illinois in 1977 and continuing through the present debates over extremist web sites. Specific attention is given to scholarly publications on the topic of hate speech, speech codes on college campuses, hate on the Internet, and bias crimes legislation since the mid-eighties.

Hate Speech
hate speech orig. U.S., speech expressing hatred or intolerance of other social groups, esp. on the basis of race or sexuality; hostile verbal abuse (though the term is sometimes understood to encompass written and non-verbal forms of expression).

-Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. "hate"


AMENDMENT I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

AMENDMENT XIV Hate Spech Exhibit - Schaffer Library
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

- United States Constitution

If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought-not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

-Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in United States v. Schwimmer (1929)


In 1977 the Chicago-based neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America (NSPA), under the direction of founder Frank Collin, planned a public rally in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie, Illinois. In a decision that divided the ranks of civil libertarians, the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as the state and federal courts, defended the NSPA's right to march. The events in Illinois became part of a new wave of hate debates in the United States, as a rise in instances of defamation and an increase in racial and cultural violence in the 1980s and 1990s forced the nation to revisit the limits of the First Amendment.

Resources:

Fish, Stanley. There's No Such Thing As Free Speech, and It's a Good Thing, Too. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1994.

Graber, Mark A. Transforming Free Speech: the Ambiguous Legacy of Civil Libertarianism.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Gross, Kimberly A., and Donald R. Kinder. "A Collision of Principles? Free Expression, Racial Equality
and the Prohibition of Racist Speech." British Journal of Political Science 28 (July 1998):
445-71.

Heyman, Steven J., ed. Hate Speech and the Constitution. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996.

Lederer, Laura J., and Richard Delgado, eds. The Price We Pay: the Case Against Racist Speech,
Hate Propaganda, and Pornography.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.

MacKinnon, Catharine A. Only Words. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Matsuda, Mari J., Charles R. Lawrence, Richard Delgado, and Kimberle Williams Crenshaw. Words
That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment.
Boulder,
Colorado: Westview Press, 1993.

National Socialist Party of America v. Skokie, 432 U.S. Reports 43 (14 June 1977).

Russomanno, Joseph. Speaking Our Minds: Conversations With the People Behind Landmark First
Amendment Cases.
Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.

Walker, Samuel. Hate Speech: the History of an American Controversy. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1994.

Hate Speech > The Cases

Note: Full-text of these cases can be found in LexisNexis Legal Research (Restricted to Union College).

Free Expression

Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)
Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969)
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989)

Subversive Activity

Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919)
Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)

"Fighting Words"

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942)
Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U.S. 518 (1972)
Feiner v. New York, 340 U.S. 315 (1951)

Offensive and Hurtful Speech

Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971)
Beauharnais v. Illinois, 343 U.S. 250 (1952)

Time, Manner and Place

Healey v. James, 408 U.S. 169 (1972)

"Hostile Environment"

Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986)
Harris v. Forklift Systems, 114 S.Ct. 367 (1993)

Hate Speech

National Socialist Party of America v. Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977)
Colin v. Smith, 578 F.2d. 1197 (Seventh Circuit, 1978)
R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377 (1992)

Campus Hate Speech

Doe v. University of Michigan, 721 F. Supp 852 (E.D. Mich 1989)
UWM Post v. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin, 774 F. Supp 1163, (E.D. Wis. 1991)
Iota XI Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity v. George Mason University 773 F. Supp 792, (E.D. Va. 1991)
Dambrot v. Central Michigan University, 839 F. Supp. 477 (E.D. Mich. 1993)
Robert Corry, et al. v. Leland Stanford Junior University, County of Santa Clara Superior Court,
Case no. 740309, 27 February 1995

Adapted from:
Heumann, Milton, and Thomas W. Church, eds. "Cases." In Hate Speech on Campus: Cases, Case Studies, and Commentary. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997.


Hate Speech> On Campus

Hate Spech Exhibit - Schaffer LibraryThis institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

-Thomas Jefferson on his plan for the University of Virginia

Intellectual independence and social responsibility are not mutually exclusive. Our universities have been, are and must remain open intellectual communities. They also have an obligation to protect the safety and dignity of our students and their right to learn without intimidation or fear.

-Vartan Gregorian, Brown University president, 1989-1997

Resources:

Arthur, John, and Amy Shapiro, eds. Campus Wars: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Difference. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1995.

Campanella, Gina L. "Campus Protests Expressions of Hate." Concordiensis, 2 November 2000, 11.

Falzano, Rebecca. "Discriminatory Chalking: Unacceptable Expression." Concordiensis, 2 November 2000, 11.

Hate Speech on Campus. American Civil Liberties Union. 31 December 1994. Available at: http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=9004&c=87; Accessed: 1/28/03.

Heumann, Milton, and Thomas W. Church, eds. Hate Speech on Campus: Cases, Case Studies, and Commentary. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997.

Holzer, Henry Mark, ed. Speaking Freely: the Case Against Speech Codes. Studio City, California: Second Thoughts Books, 1994.

Hull, Roger. "[Hate Speech at Union.]" E-mail to the Campus Community. 18 November 2002.

Kirsch, Dan, et al. "All Speech Deserves Protection." Concordiensis, 2 November 2000, 11.

Lewin, Tamar. "Suit Challenges A University's Speech Code." New York Times, 24 April 2003, Late Edition - Final.

"The Pros and Cons of a Policy Covering Hate Speech." The University Record, University of
Michigan. 8 February 1993.

"Racism and Cultural Diversity." Shippensburg University Undergraduate Catalog 1997/99.

Wessler, Stephen, and Margaret Moss. Hate Crimes on Campus: the Problem and Efforts to Confront It. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2001.

"In a significant portion of campus hate crime cases, the illegal conduct appears to have escalated from lower levels of harassment, beginning with degrading language. If not challenged or interrupted, the widespread use of this language sends the message - often unintended - that bias and prejudice are accepted within a campus community." (p. 6)


Hate Speech> On the Internet

Hate Spech Exhibit - Schaffer Library

For the first time in the history of our democracy, those promoting hate, racial violence, and terrorism are able to do so directly into the mainstream 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in an unassailable and attractive format.


-Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center

Resources:

God Hates Fags: Fags v Kids. Westboro Baptist Church. Available at: http://www.godhatesfags.com/fags/fagsvskids.html; Accessed: 5/22/03.

Kessler, Jordan. Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online: an ADL Report on Internet Bigotry, Extremism and Violence, Featuring 10 Frequently Asked Questions About the Law and Hate on the Internet. New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1999.

Racist Cartoons. White Aryan Resistance. 2000. Available at: http://www.resist.com/cartoons/racistcartoons.htm; Accessed: 5/22/03.

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Hate Crime on the Internet: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate. 106th Cong., 1st sess., 14 September 1999. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2001.

-Utah senator Orrin G. Hatch

"We must be vigilant and prompt in our efforts to begin eliminating hate on the Internet, but we must also do so with exactitude. From this complicated maze of issues, there is simply no simple answer, and with the First Amendment as our country’s first premise, we know that any solutions that we endorse must recognize that the surest way to defeat the message of hate is to hold it under the harsh light of public scrutiny." (p. 2)

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Created by: Courtney Seymour, Acting Reference Librarian, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308; 518/388-6141; Fax 518/388-6641