Speech code - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article discusses the legal concept of speech codes. For the sociolinguistic academic field, see Speech Code Theory
Speech Code Theory
Speech code theory refers to a framework for communication in a given speech community. As an academic discipline, it explores the manner in which groups communicate based on societal, cultural, gender, occupational or other factors....

A speech code is any rule or regulation that limits, restricts, or bans speech beyond the strict legal limitations upon freedom of speech

Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

or press

Freedom of the press

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...

found in the legal definitions of harassment

Harassment

Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...

, slander, libel, and fighting words

Fighting words

Fighting words are written or spoken words, generally expressed to incite hatred or violence from their target. Specific definitions, freedoms, and limitations of fighting words vary by jurisdiction...

. Such codes are common in the workplace, in universities, and in private organizations. The term may be applied to regulations that do not explicitly prohibit particular words or sentences. Speech codes are often applied for the purpose of suppressing hate speech

Hate speech

Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....

or forms of social discourse thought to be disagreeable to the implementers.

Use of the term is in many cases valuative; those opposing a particular regulation may refer to it as a speech code, while supporters will prefer to describe it as, for example and depending on the circumstances, a harassment policy. This is particularly the case in academic

Academia

Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

contexts. The difference may be ascertained by determining if the harassment policy bans more than what is legally defined as harassment; one that does is almost certainly a speech code.

Speech codes in U.S. universities

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

has not issued a direct ruling on whether speech codes at public universities

Public university

A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. A national university may or may not be considered a public university, depending on regions...

are unconstitutional. However, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan is the Federal district court with jurisdiction over of the eastern portion of the state of Michigan. The Court is based in Detroit, with courthouses also located in Ann Arbor, Bay City, Flint, and Port Huron...

has struck down a speech code at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

, indicating that broad speech codes seeking to prohibit hate speech

Hate speech

probably violate the First Amendment

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...

(Doe v. University of Michigan, 1989). Subsequent challenges against such language supposedly couched in harassment policies, diversity

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...

mandates, and so forth instead of being self-identified as speech codes have generally succeeded to date.

One web site describes behavior that speech codes are meant to prevent:

Discriminatory harassment includes conduct (oral, written, graphic or physical) directed against any person or, group of persons because of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran's status and that has the purpose or reasonably foreseeable effect of creating an offensive, demeaning, intimidating, or hostile environment for that person or group of persons

(Uelmen, 1993).

Today, most talk of speech codes is within institutional contexts and refer to colleges and refers to official lists and rules established by authorities, where speech codes are occasionally used by colleges and universities as a bludgeon to suppress speech that others find offensive. Alan Charles Kors

Alan Charles Kors

Alan Charles Kors is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches the intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has received both the Lindback Foundation Award and the Ira Abrams Memorial Award for distinguished college teaching. Dr. Kors graduated summa...

and Harvey Silverglate, in their work, The Shadow University, published in 1998, refer to a number of cases in which speech codes have been used by public and private universities to suppress academic freedom

Academic freedom

Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...

, as well as the freedom of speech

Freedom of speech

, and deny due process

Due process

Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...

of law (for public institutions), or violate explicit and implicit guarantees of fairness declared or implied in a student's contract

Contract

A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...

of enrollment or a faculty member's contract of employment with the institution of higher education in question (at private institutions).

One particular case, the University of Pennsylvania “Water Buffalo” case

Water buffalo incident

The water buffalo incident was a controversy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993, in which student Eden Jacobowitz was charged with violating the university's racial harassment policy.-History:...

, highlighted reasons for and against speech codes and is typical of such cases. In the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

case, a freshman faced expulsion when he called African American sorority members who were making substantial amounts of noise and disturbing his sleep during the middle of the night, “water buffalo” (the charged student claimed not to intend discrimination, as the individual in question spoke the modern Hebrew language

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

, and the term "water buffalo", or "behema", in modern Hebrew, is slang for a rude or an insulting person; moreover, water buffalo are native to Asia rather than Africa). Some saw the statement as racist while others simply saw it as a general insult. Questions were raised about how far was too far when interpreting and punishing statements like the one in question. The college eventually dropped the charges amid national criticism (Downs, 1993), (Kors & Silverglate, 1998).

Reasons for speech codes

There are two distinct reasons given for the implementation of speech codes, most often given in the context of higher education institutions. The first is as follows, “First, to protect vulnerable students from threatening, truly harassing speech that amounts to 'fighting words,' which are not protected by the First Amendment“ (Downs, 1993).

The second reason is more abstract, leaving room for argument both for and against the reason. One author states, “Second, [speech codes] are linked to a broader ideological agenda designed to foster an egalitarian vision of social justice” (Downs, 1993). Because many institutions hold such a view in their mission statements, the justification for a policy in line with the views of the institution comes quite naturally. However, opponents of speech codes often maintain that any restriction on speech is a violation of the First Amendment. Because words and phrases typically belonging in the hate speech category could also be used in literature, quoted for socially acceptable purposes or used out loud as examples of what not to say in certain situations, it can be argued that the words and phrases have practical, intrinsic value and therefore should not be banned.

According to one scholar, hate speech complaints are up on campuses everywhere, pressuring universities to create speech codes of their own. He states:

There were approximately 75 hate speech codes in place at U.S. colleges and universities in 1990; by 1991, the number grew to over 300. School administrators institute codes primarily to foster productive learning environments in the face of rising racially motivated and other offensive incidents on many campuses. According to a recent study, reports of campus harassment increased 400 percent between 1985 and 1990. Moreover, 80 percent of campus harassment incidents go unreported

(Uelman, 1992).

Examples of speech regulated under speech codes

Examples of communication regulated under speech codes include Holocaust denial, racist or sexist speech. More stringent policies include a ban on anything deemed offensive, such as ridicule against another person.

Citations

Downs, Donald (1993). Codes say darnedest things. Quill; Vol. 81 Issue 8, p19, October.
Uelmen, Gerald (1992). The Price of Free Speech: Campus Hate Speech Codes. *Issues in Ethics - V. 5, N. 2, Summer 1992. Murkkula Center For Applied Ethics.http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v5n2/codes.html

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Speech codes in U.S. universities

Reasons for speech codes

Examples of speech regulated under speech codes

See also

Citations