Panelist: The Tensions Between Free Speech and Inclusion

Here’s a clipping from a news article covering a recent panel I was on that focused on the tensions between free speech and inclusion on campus.

“This event, called Free Speech And Inclusion: Holding The Tension On Campus, tackled the issue of the line between speech protected by the First Amendment and hate speech. “

“The next speaker was the Director of Social Justice Education Relando Thompkins-Jones. His speech focused on education, challenging views and what people have at stake while arguing.

“What I like to try to keep in mind – using education as a way to lessen the distance between who we say we are as a community and how that’s actually felt by all the people in the community,” Thompkins-Jones said.

He discussed how we need to understand our history and face interdependent systems of oppression. Among these systems are white supremacy, heterosexism, cissexism, classism and ableism. All these systems reinforce each other.

“For some of us, depending on how we’re located, our experience, our relationship with power, privilege and oppression, what we’re talking about could be a learning experience while for others it could be their very lives that are on the line,” Thompkins-Jones said.

Some people don’t realize that the things they are arguing about are more than an idea. For some people, politics don’t disappear when they are done discussing it. Their lives are ceaselessly impacted by things others only argue about.” 

Visit the full article: “The fine line between free speech and hate speech: GV holds panel on free speech”

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones

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