My essay was On Racist Speech by Charles R. As a person who had to deal with a lot of things dealing with racist speech, I can agree with most of the things Charles R. Lawrence III talks about in "On Racist Speech". Lawrence talks about the First Amendment. Sating at such protection reinforces our society's commitment to tolerance as a value and that, by protecting bad speech from government regulation, we will be forced to combat it as a community. This contention seems to be his thesis statement, because it is the strongest argument.
One of his stronger points deals with racist speech being protected by the First Amendment, a point that is not getting across. When what a person has to say isn't getting across, people will eventually have to deal with it later on. He also states that we have not listened to the real victims, that we have shown so little understanding of their injury, and that we have abandoned those whose race, gender, or sexual preference continues to make them second-class citizens. I would have to say with all the examples that are given in this article that he does know what he is talking about. This man might be a minority himself. The tone that is being used in this article seems to be angry or has strong feelings for this subject.
The major strength in this article is Brown v. Board of Education. He seems to have a lot of information about this case. Plus this case was used to proved what he thought was right. For example he says, that Brown also recognized that black children did not have an equal opportunity to learn and participate in school community if they bore the additional burden of being subjected to the humiliation and psychic assault contained in the message of segregation. .
Another problem that should have been brought up when speaking about racist speech is what people are allowed to discuss in class. In my dealing with school we were never allowed to talk about certain things.
