A racially charged video that's been circulating TikTok from Virginia City has stirred conversation surrounding hate speech versus freedom of speech.
We spoke to Amy Pason, an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Nevada Reno, and she told us it's common now to have altercations caught on video, which is why more of these situations are coming to light.
Professor Pason says under the first amendment, hate speech is protected because it's categorized as an idea.
“You can have an idea that races should be equal, or you can have an idea that races are not equal and that’s also an idea that’s protected. So just that basic level that someone might have the reaction of saying “you are ‘x’” derogatory slur is still a protected idea,” she said.
But she says, just because the idea one may have is protected under the first amendment, that doesn't mean that they have the ultimate right to say it or don't have to be held accountable for their actions.
“In the scope of what was going on in this public space, words were said that caused a reaction and the reaction is not protected under the first amendment,” she said.
She also touches on the topic of threats versus hate speech.
“If you burn a cross because that’s how you’re going to express your views for whichever group you’re doing and nobody else is around besides your group or it’s at a rally, that’s ok," she said. "It’s still what we would consider hate speech because it does have that connotation, but it’s not hurting anybody. If you take that same cross and out it on the lawn of a family, that is a black family for example, and it might be accompanied with ‘we’re coming back to get you’ that’s going to be in that true threat.”
If there is a true threat lying within the hate speech, then that's when the person expressing the hate speech will see consequences.
“What we do have generally when we think about the first amendment is that there are some types of speech that are more protected than other types of speech,” she said.
She says the bottom line is, you are responsible for what you say, and what you say may come with consequences.
Professor Pason says people have the right to say anything they want, but they are responsible for the reactions it gets from other people. This could lead to threats hidden within the hate speech.
“The first amendment doesn’t guarantee that you have an audience, people don’t have to listen to you, so if it’s something we are offended by you walk away,” she said.
One person in the video on TikTok was not arrested for hate speech. They were arrested for breaking the peace, in that their words caused a reaction that led to their arrest.
“If you use hate speech if you’re calling others derogatory names and are bullying and harassing in that way, you can still be held accountable just through people suing you for things like emotional distress,” she said.
As a Professor, Pason teaches a class that focuses on persuasion, and she says they go over free speech versus hate speech.
“My students in class can name all sorts of things that they’ve seen online or that they’ve read about or that they’ve heard people say that get into those categories where we are dehumanizing, where were generalizing, where we’re categorizing other people as less than. So those are the spaces we really need to pay attention to and watch for because it’s not just words at that point.”
She says both sides of an opinion can have their space and time, but both sides have to be responsible for the reactions that come from their words, especially if it breaks the peace. She also says she thinks people need to realize we are more alike than different, and she says this would help with confrontation prevention.
