A Look at Sexy, Racial Speech
by: Devorah Adler

It has always been assumed that the fight for equality is contingent upon First Amendment rights. The right to free speech has protected America's most successful social movements, beginning in the mid 1800's with the abolitionist movement. Historicall y, attempts to repress speech have come from the right, as a government struggles to preseve the status quo, and because of this the First Amendment is often seen as one of the most powerful weapons that liberal movements have.

Because of this, free-speech advocates were surprised when liberals throughout the country began supporting policies that restricted hate speech in the mid 1980's. The support for this kind of speech code originated on college campuses and in law schools and was advanced by those who saw themselves as fighting for equality. After all, bigoted speech is used to marginalize and victimize people based upon their race or sex. Therefore, this language should be considered an assault rather than speech because the words have little to do with ideas and everything to do with marginalization of minorities. Although this view makes sense superficially, it does not hold up under closer examination. Despite their good intentions, these codes place free speech and e quality in adversarial positions. By doing so, even though these policies are intended only to inhibit racists and bigots, they effectively silence everyone.

Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex ( NYU Press, 299 pgs) is a provocative anthology that explores the inherent contradiction in using the First Amendment to support policies that attempt to regulate hate speech. While the authors acknowledge the validity of the concerns that prompt speech codes, they demonstrate the difficulty of distinguishing between insults and ideas. All of these authors successfully make this point. However, the literary quality of the anthology is rather uneven

The essay by Donald Lively, "Racial Myopia in the Age of Digital Compression", is without a doubt the best essay in the anthology. Lively's direct manner and concise delivery of relevant information is a pleasure to read after slogging through the overly academic essays of the other authors, especially Nadine Strossen and Robert Post. Lively's essay begins by placing the current debate into a historical landscape; he writes about the role First Amendment rights played in the civil rights movement and th e limitations previously placed on the First Amendment through prior court decisions. Lively demonstrates that even with the protection of guarenteed freedom of speech, the historical trend has been to turn policies intended to protect minorities into str ategies to persecute them. He states that even though speech codes attempt to propel society towards greater equality, the codes really play a minimal role in the reality of race relations today; they are generated as part of an ideology more concerned with an illusion of equality than a real interest in race relations.

He likens the reasoning behind the codes to the ideology behind Plessy v. Ferguson, where the decision stated that "decisions on the basis of race...were natural, essential, and indefea sable.". He goes on to say that the renewed attention to racial protocol like these speech codes indicates a set of "immutable conditions necessitating a formal code for governance of cross cultural relations.". Lively's reasoning is clear and his logic is sound. This essay should serve as a solid introduction to the essence of the speech code debate for those who are unfamiliar with it.

Most of the essays follow Lively's general pattern, and their reasoning is similar. However, Anthony P. Griffin's essay departs from the traditional format in order to try and make his point through fiction stories. Although this is a valiant effort, it i s a ridiculous essay. He tells the story of a lawyer and a comic who are just realizing the speech code they struggled to establish is now being levied against them. The story ends with the comic cursing at his lawyer and the two of them crying in anger a t the loss of their right to speak their minds. Then they both go to get a beer and talk about "the softer sex". Griffin is an established and celebrated lawyer with a great deal of worthwhile information to communicate; however, after this essay, it is obvious that fiction is not the medium he should speak through.

Overall, Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex is a good introduction to the struggle to reconcile the harm done by racist speech with the rights provided under the First Amendment. Although several of the essays are overly specific at times, assuming the re ader has previous information she may not have, the anthology opens new avenues of discussion for this ongoing debate.