The Controversy Over Quoting Racial Epithets, Now at UC Irvine School of Law
Plus a new draft law review article on the subject, by Prof. Randall Kennedy (Harvard Law School), a leading scholar of race and the law, and me.
Campus Free Speech
Iowa State English Professor Forbids Papers "Against Gay Marriage, Abortion, Black Lives Matter,"
threatens to kick students out of class for "othering." Fortunately, the university has stepped in and rejected this position.
"How Racist Are Universities, Really? Hyperbolic Accusations Do More Harm Than Good"
An excellent piece by Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy, one of the nation's leading scholars of race, law, and society.
Tulane Canceled a Talk by the Author of an Acclaimed Anti-Racism Book After Students Said the Event Was 'Violent'
In Life of a Klansman, Edward Ball reckons with a white supremacist ancestor. Try explaining that to the students.
'Cancel Culture' at U.S. Colleges Not Getting Worse, Say Liberal Professors. Conservative Colleagues Disagree.
Plus: Georgia makes it a hate crime to damage police property, SCOTUS denies relief to prisoners, Trump escalates war on Chinese apps, study casts doubt on "diversity training," coronavirus in schools, and more…
Med School Professor Removed from Fellowship Director Post, Apparently for Publishing Anti-Affirmative-Action Journal Article
This happened at University of Pittsburgh, a public university.
Trump Urges Floridians To Vote by Mail While Suing Over Remote Voting in Nevada
Plus: Tuesday primary results, TikTok may move to London, polls show growing distrust in media, and more...
2 Pro-Democracy University Employees in Hong Kong Fired as Beijing-Imposed National Security Law Takes Effect
"Academic staff...are no longer free to make controversial statements to the general public about politically or socially controversial matters," one of them writes.
What Cancel Culture Has In Common With Medieval Outlawry
Both outlawry and cancel culture grow out of the same human impulse toward ostracism, the desire to exclude offenders from “respectable” society.
Fordham University Disciplines Student (Austin Tong) for Political Instagram Posts
The student has now sued Fordham
Jonathan Rauch on Cancel Culture and the 'Unending Battle' for Free Speech
"The idea that wrongheaded, dangerous, heretical, and blasphemous ideas should be not only allowed but protected is preposterous," says Rauch. And yet, it's "the single most successful social principle ever invented."
Professor Put on Administrative Leave for Accurately Quoting Leading Campus Speech Code Case
The professor, the chair of the Central Michigan University journalism department, was teaching a media law class, and quoted a case that discussed the use of the word "nigger" at public universities.
And Another N.Y. Bill Targeted at "Hate Speech" (and Advocacy of Boycotts of Friendly Countries)
This one focuses on student groups that get funding from public colleges, but it's an unconstitutional viewpoint-based restriction.
"These Days … It Is Safest to Be Circumspect and Cautious"
"To survive as a ... professor requires constant self-censorship and compromise, especially in the humanities .... Resistance comes at a cost .... [H]er colleague ..., a law professor, was interrogated and suspended from teaching after publishing a series of essays critical of ...."
The University of Chicago Took a Stand for Free Speech. Faculty Say They Live in Fear Anyway.
Former professor John Cochrane: "I spent much of my last few years of teaching afraid that I would say something that could be misunderstood and thus be offensive to someone."
Michigan State University VP of Research Ousted Because of His Past Scientific Statements
He remains a tenured faculty member.
Indiana University Professor Apologizes for Triggering Medical Students With 'I Can't Breathe' Exam Question
"We understand that the context in which this phrase was used resulted in a very painful trigger for many of you."
Art History Professor Condemned by Stanford Undergraduate Senate
Her crime? Spelling out what the rap group N.W.A. stands for, and quoting one of their lyrics.
Prof. Randall Kennedy (Harvard Law) on Accurately Quoting Racial Epithets
"For me, demands for silence, for avoidance, or for bowdlerization will be offered no deference."
UCLA Poli Sci Department Condemns Lecturer for Reading MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail, Showing Video About Lynching
UCLA says complaints -- about the fact that both the excerpt read from King's letter and the video included the word "nigger" -- have "been shared with UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for review."
"Statement on Campus Censorship During Nationwide Protests"
From the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Issues New Title IX Rules To Protect Free Speech, Due Process for Accused Students
"Nothing Betsy DeVos has done since she took office will have a more lasting effect on people's lives than this."
UCLA Law Dean Apologizes for My Having Accurately Quoted the Word "Nigger" in Discussing a Case
I, however, do not apologize.
Students Demand Censorship of 'Coronavirus' Theme Party
They call it a "hate crime against Asian students and scholars."
Ohio University's Radical Students Could Have Ignored Kaitlin Bennett. Instead, They Threw Liquids At Her.
The mob strategy is morally and practically flawed.
Georgia Can't Compel School Speakers To Promise They Won't Boycott Israel, Argues New Federal Lawsuit
Plus: Sanders tops Biden in new national poll, how federal housing policy is getting families evicted, and more...
Emory Students Formed a Literal Safe Space To Feel Protected from Heather Mac Donald's Words
One member of the student government argued the conservative speaker's presence was inherently discriminatory.
4 Key Republican Senators To Watch as Trump's Trial Rolls Into the Weekend
Plus: China takes campus free speech issues to a new level, Bloomberg wants to take away your vape, and more...
Judge Temporarily Blocks Potential Eviction of UConn Students in the "Racial Ridicule" Case
"On the record before the Court, the movants have demonstrated 'sufficiently serious questions going to the merits to make them a fair ground for litigation.'"
First Amendment Argument in the UConn "Racial Ridicule" Case
This is the case where two students were shouting "nigger" loudly when walking by UConn dorms; the students are trying to block university discipline based on their speech, including their eviction from student housing.
