- As a university, we have the obligation
not only to protect free speech,
but to protect the safety and
security of our community.
I now want to talk about
why, at least to me,
free speech is important.
I believe that it's
fundamental to our democracy.
Democracy requires arguments.
You have to have differences
of opinion about issues,
about candidates, for it to function.
The first thing authoritarian regimes do
is to restrict speech.
The history of speech restrictions
shows that they're most often used
against marginalized communities
and minority interests.
Think of McCarthyism for example,
or efforts to criminalize
protests against the draft
in the Vietnam War, flag
burning for example.
Speech that denigrates groups,
blacks, Jews, lesbians,
gays, transgender people,
immigrants, Muslims, women,
to give just a few examples,
is loathsome and odious.
It violates our values as a nation.
It violates our values as a university.
It violates our values as a community.
Some people feel very strongly
that we should shout it down,
not let such hateful speech happen at all
through what's sometimes
called platform denial.
I don't believe that
this is the right course
and let me explain my reasons.
I think it colludes in the
narrative of the far right
that universities do
not support free speech,
hence it undermines the university.
More speech I think is
the most important counter
to hateful speech.
Counter their arguments.
Show how wrong and bigoted they are.
Invite your own speakers,
ones that are far more compelling
than some of the really pretty dismal
and trivial speakers that
some groups have invited.
Find safe space.
Find solidarity with those who support you
and support your community.
What can we do as a community?
We can give platforms to voices
that have been historically
denied a voice.
In this regard we've provided funding
to equity and inclusion
for a speaker series
and we'll be collecting soon input
for who we should invite.
We can express our views
forcefully, repeatedly,
about speakers that we
feel are bigoted or racist,
that espouse views that
are contrary to our values
as a community.
What happened in Charlottesville
would not have justified
canceling the rally in Boston,
and in fact the rally in Boston
turned out to be a wonderful statement,
a nonviolent statement of solidarity
against hate, against bigotry.
So, this is very much an
evolving area in the law,
but I'm deeply committed to
keeping our community safe,
but also protecting the
right of free speech
that is our DNA.
It's our heritage.
What I meant by the year of free speech
is not that we didn't have it beforehand,
but we haven't had lots of opportunities
as a community to think about
what are the genuinely hard
issues about free speech.
What do you do when the tension between
free speech rights, which
permit abhorrent, hateful,
odious speech, and our
values as a community?
When is it justified to cancel an event
because of the threat of violence?
At what point do you do that?
What constitutes enough of a threat?
I mean, this is really...
Issues I think the
community has to engage.
Not only at the beginning of my career,
but through much of it, I was very much a minority.
I mean, when I came to this campus
3% of the faculty were women.
It was very, you didn't
see a lot of female faces
in any faculty gathering and I was often
one of very few women administrators
and was used to hearing
language that was hurtful,
that was
highly critical and demeaning of women.
Thinking about this over many years,
I realized that the surest
sort of source of strength
which admittedly I think is
easier the older you get,
it is a kind of inner strength,
such as a sense of self-worth.
I don't mean that it's trivial
and I don't mean that it's simple,
but I think ultimately that's the one kind
of the surest kind of
strength we can all develop.
