“One nation, under God,” reads the United States pledge of allegiance. Religion and race permeate American society on every level, from the Muslim corner store owner to the monolithic Senators manning Capitol Hill. So it goes without saying that race and religion play a huge role in censorship of free speech and expression, from popular music to government and everyday life. As a capitalist society, American society “invents, manipulates or retires” (Delgado and Stefancic, p.7) narratives and stereotypes about groups of people to best suit its needs. Protected by the First Amendment, legal courts and self-censorship, the exclusion of marginalized groups from societal spotlights is the story this country was founded on.
As a society founded by white people for white people, people of …show more content…
In the 1980s, universities and colleges across the nation instituted speech codes to protect “hate speech aimed at… a historically oppressed group” (Paxton, p. 123). The codes were deemed unconstitutional, like in the case of Doe vs. University of Michigan in which the consensus was that their multifaceted speech code was too broad. To give some context with another country: after the Holocaust, Germany made several sweeping censorship movements. In Germany, you cannot call your newborn child “Adolf” and you cannot talk about or promote the interests of the Nazi party, among other things. However, in the United States, a speech code that prompted jail time if someone displayed a Nazi swastika was struck down by the courts as limiting “unpopular expression” (Paxton, p. 125). In many European countries, hate speech is criminal and actions against it are proactive. Conversely, American society is largely proactive and take place in legal courts. Even then, the overarching theme of these court battles is that, no matter how unpopular an opinion or a subject is, it is that person’s constitutional right to be able to express
As a society founded by white people for white people, people of …show more content…
In the 1980s, universities and colleges across the nation instituted speech codes to protect “hate speech aimed at… a historically oppressed group” (Paxton, p. 123). The codes were deemed unconstitutional, like in the case of Doe vs. University of Michigan in which the consensus was that their multifaceted speech code was too broad. To give some context with another country: after the Holocaust, Germany made several sweeping censorship movements. In Germany, you cannot call your newborn child “Adolf” and you cannot talk about or promote the interests of the Nazi party, among other things. However, in the United States, a speech code that prompted jail time if someone displayed a Nazi swastika was struck down by the courts as limiting “unpopular expression” (Paxton, p. 125). In many European countries, hate speech is criminal and actions against it are proactive. Conversely, American society is largely proactive and take place in legal courts. Even then, the overarching theme of these court battles is that, no matter how unpopular an opinion or a subject is, it is that person’s constitutional right to be able to express