The First Amendment has led Americans to believe in a sense of freedom that does not exist; freedom of speech. Freedom of speech in this country has never been absolute. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater, solicit bribes, make terrorist threats, slander another, or intentionally inflict emotional distress or be obscene in public. What Americans do have a right to is their opinion and the means by which to express it, no matter if the opinion is favorable or not. "In recent years, American campuses have seen a resurgence of racial violence and a corresponding rise in the incidence of verbal and symbolic assault and harassment to which blacks and other traditionally subjugated groups are subjected- (Lawrence, 157). Among the settings of these expressions of intolerance are college and university campuses, where bias incidents have been occurring more since the mid 1980's. Understandably, outrage and demands for change are the responses to these incidents. But given the lack of racial and social diversity among students, faculty and administrators on most campuses; many universities, under pressure to respond to the concerns of those who are the objects of hate have adopted codes or policies prohibiting speech that offends any group based on race gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. That's the wrong response, well-meaning or not. .
There are some advocates who support restrictions on unfavorable speech, like violent or racist remarks. Like Paul McMasters says, "[s]peech code advocates fail to see the irony and contradictions in their own positions. They would entrust, for example, fair enforcement of speech codes to the very individuals and institutions they have labeled racist, sexist, and other-ist- (McMasters, 173). And though the intentions behind such beliefs are made in good faith, it is unrealistic to believe the mission of filtering out racist speech could be completed without catching in the same net all kinds of other speech that is considered "OK-.
