1. A Rutgers University freshman named Tyler Clementi committed suicide by jumping off
the George Washington Bridge after his roommate, Dharun Ravi, secretly broadcast via
a spycam Clementi kissing another man. Ravi was convicted of bias intimidation and
violation of privacy. Broadcasting video images can be considered speech as we
understand it today. Commentators characterized this as hate speech as it conveyed
homophobic ridicule of Clementi. Should behavior such as Ravi's be punished, whether
by the University or the state government? Is Ravi's behavior ethically defensible as an
exercise of free speech? Develop ethical arguments in support of and against Ravi's
behavior.
2. A professor at California State University, Long Beach, named Kevin B. MacDonald was
hired by the psychology department in 1985, tenured, and later promoted to full
professor in 1995. But also in the 1990s, he shifted his research agenda to development
of a justification of anti-Semitism derived from evolutionary psychology. Thoroughly
investigated over the years by the Southern Poverty Law Center, MacDonald has
published work prized by neo-Nazis. He testified on behalf of David Irving, a well-known
Holocaust denier, and has long had associations with white supremacist groups. His
personal website is filled with anti-Semitism and racism. The University administration
has consistently, when asked, said that it disapproves of his statements, but defends his
right to academic freedom, which is a variant of freedom of expression. His home
university department in psychology passed resolutions in recent years that condemned
the misuse of academic research by groups that promote racial/ethnic superiority and/or
racial/ethnic hatred while also reaffirming the importance of academic freedom. If you
were the university president, what steps would you take in response to complaints
about his work? Should faculty members be entitled to engage in what would be
considered hate speech by others? Should students at a university have the same free
speech rights? Frame your conclusions in terms of the ethical considerations of both free
speech and hate speech.
3. Does your college or university have a policy against hate speech? Has it been
challenged, that you know of, as a violation of student free speech? Evaluate the policy
according to ethical principles of freedom of expression.
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