Category: Hate Crimes
Stop Bullying Trans People!
A U.S. Court of Appeals upholds an elementary school’s decision not to publish a 4th grade student’s essay encouraging people to stop bullying transgender people.
Fighting Anti-Asian Racism: Tools for Libraries
When we provide library patrons with books that tell a fuller story about Asian American experience, we can help eliminate the conditions in which ignorance and fear flourish.
Oregon’s Stand-Against-Hate Initiative: DOJ compelled to document extralegal speech under amended intimidation statute.
Oregon’s new stand-against-hate initiative is, in part, a reaction to the fatal MAX stabbings in Portland three years ago. But asking the government to intervene in our extralegal interactions does more to divide us than it does to unite. Especially when these interventions call for the compiling of data on speech that is of no legal consequence whatsoever.
When Free Speech is a Crime
The framers of the Constitution did not anticipate texting your boyfriend to encourage his suicide, or the sending of strobe GIFs that precipitate epileptic seizures. Sometimes, free speech is a crime.
In the Shadow of Pittsburgh: Intellectual Freedom to Defend the Jewish People
By guest blogger Emily Schneider. If librarians and other advocates for an inclusive and activist approach to literacy are afraid to discuss antisemitism as a deep-rooted and dangerous blight on society, we have a problem that needs to be addressed.
Convincing Despite Its Flaws: A Review of Nadine Strossen’s HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship
Strossen makes a strong argument against anti-hate-speech laws, but does focusing on the legislative issue miss the forest for the trees?
Censorship or Hate Crime?
Two weeks ago, students at the University of Texas at Dallas campus found two Qur’ans in the toilet.
Documenting Hate Crimes in Libraries
An uncomfortable truth is that hate speech is also free speech. It’s not illegal for people to say stupid, ignorant, or even deliberately hurtful things. A hate crime, however, is about more than speech; it is about specific criminal behavior. Library incidents that we’re trying to track falls into two broad categories: vandalism or harassment.