- Ah, free speech.
It's the thing everyone thinks they value
until they hear something they don't like
and today we're gonna
get into the nitty gritty
of the free speech battles
happening on college campuses.
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2017 was a big year for free speech.
White nationalist rallies
and the take a knee movement
sparked tons of media
attention and controversy.
College campuses across the country
including where we are now
and where I went to school,
UC-Berkeley, go Bears,
are at the center of
this free speech debate.
It's the same story over
and over again in the news.
Protests erupt over a
controversial speaker
who comes to campus,
sometimes shutting them down
and sometimes resulting in violence
and this draws a divisive line
between people who want to
limit controversial speech
at campuses
and those who believe that
anyone should have a right
to speak freely
no matter how extreme their views.
What exactly does free speech
mean on college campuses?
First, some background.
Freedom of speech is protected
under the first amendment
of the U.S. Constitution.
It basically means the government
cannot arrest or punish
you for speaking your mind.
You're totally free to bash
whatever or whoever you want,
the president, Congress,
tech bros, decaf coffee,
Florida.
Anyway, the point is the government
can't come after you for it.
The founding fathers this
was fundamental to democracy
and they were right.
Without free speech
there couldn't have been the civil rights
or women's rights to vote movements.
And who knows, maybe our next
president will be a woman.
But to be clear
free speech just applies
to government and government entities
which are places that are funded
by your tax dollars at work, folks.
And yes, public universities
fall into this category.
Private companies, on the other hand,
can censor you all they want.
That's why ESPN, for example,
can fire a sports anchor
for saying something that goes
against their company policies
but that anchor can't get
arrested for what she said.
Or the NFL could make a rule
banning players from kneeling
but players couldn't get
arrested if they chose to do it.
But there are some limits to free speech
like blackmail, making a threat,
soliciting a crime, inciting
violence, lying under oath
and violations of copyright
are some of the things
that are not allowed.
And here's where a lot of the controversy
on college campuses comes in:
hate speech.
Like this person who feels strongly
that college campuses
should be no place for hate.
- Racism isn't welcome, bigotry
isn't welcome on this campus
and we can't set a precedent
for giving people who are spousing hatred
to have a platform on this campus.
- But the truth is, when it comes
to giving speeches to crowds --
for the most part hate speech is protected
and just so we're all
on the same page here,
hate speech usually refers
to attacks on people
based on their race,
religion, sexual orientation,
gender, disability and the like.
So a speaker can totally
say racist, homophobic
or mean-spirited things
about groups of people.
I mean, hey, that's pretty messed up
but it's also not illegal.
It's super hard for someone to
get punished for hate speech
when speaking to a crowd.
Basically it can only happen
if this speech immediately
and intentionally
provokes a crowd to commit a crime.
So for example, a KKK leader
is allowed to give a speech
saying lots of terrible
things about different races
but what would be illegal
is if the speaker pointed
to someone in the crowd
and yelled, attack that person,
and then the crowd actually did.
Now it's super easy to hate hate speech.
It's mean, offensive
and can really hurt the
people it's directed at
but there's a good reason
why it's protected.
Think about it,
do you really want to put
the power
in the hands of the government
to decide what they consider hateful?
Say we've got a president that
finds hilarious parody videos
like this SNL clips to be hateful
and decides to make them illegal.
[SNL Clip] - You know, I actually love football.
I could have played.
People say I remind them of an NFL player
because I'm combative, I like to win
and I might have a
degenerative brain disease.
(grunts)
- Oh my God, what happened?
- What happened was you
made Barack Obama angry
and when you make Barack Obama angry
he turns into the rock Obama.
(laughter) [End of SNL Clip]
- I mean, it wouldn't be America
if we couldn't make fun
of our own president.
Okay, let's go back to
college campuses for a second.
Public universities like
where we are now UC-Berkeley
are public entities
because they're funded
by U.S. tax dollars.
So a public university
can't deny any speakers
based on their views
no matter how crazy or extreme they are.
In fact, last year Auburn University
tried to get white
nationalist Richard Spencer
to stop speaking on campus
but a federal judge ruled
that that was a violation
of his constitutional
first amendment rights.
But things get complicated when student
or public safety is involved
like when UC-Berkeley
had to dish out $600,000,
yes, that's over a half a million dollars,
when conservative speaker Ben Shapiro
wanted to come to campus.
Could universities just
use the threat of violence
to shut down speakers whose
views they don't agree with?
And who should bear the cost?
The universities, the speakers
or a combination of both?
Free speech advocates believe
a university must do
everything in its power
to allow and protect speakers.
One of the most outspoken
advocates is Robert Reich,
an economist and professor at Berkeley
whose known for his liberal views.
We see him all the time on the news
advocating for free speech
for some of the people he
disagrees with the most.
[Robert Reich] - I tell my students all the time
the best way to learn something
is to talk to people who disagree with you
because that forces, that forces you
to sharpen your views and test your views
and you might even, it might even come out
at a different place.
A university, of all places,
is the locus where we want to have
provocative views.
- And do you really want administrators
deciding who's offensive?
I mean, where do you draw
the line on hateful speech?
If a liberal campus decides to ban Spencer,
could a conservative campus
decide to ban Colin Kaepernick
or Hillary Clinton?
Censorship goes both ways.
So, what do you think about all this?
How should universities
handle controversial speakers?
Let us know in the comments
below and thanks for watching.
Oh, and if you like this video
be sure to check out our other one
on how the immigration
system really works.
And don't forget to subscribe.
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