Rise With the Rolling Tide: A Critical Race Perspective on Assaultive Speech in U.S. Campus Communities

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Race Theory in Black Education

Abstract

College campuses are continually called upon to grapple with tensions of assaultive (hate) speech and racial inclusion. This paper is a critical race analysis of how free speech is defined and the logic behind anti-regulation policies offered in response to assaultive speech. Assaultive speech is words and actions that maintains a pernicious racial hierarchy and promote exclusion of historically marginalized groups. To advance re-framing assaultive speech, the author offers inclusive dignity, which embodies an understanding of history’s role in creating social status, as a guide for campus administrators to address assaultive speech in campus communities. Faculty, staff, and students who believe in equal personhood give credence to institutional values grounded in inclusive dignity that normalize assaultive speech policies.

Author

• LaWanda W. Ward, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park