Hate speech/talk

Someone said this is not an article. Well, improve it, then. It certainly is a topic of concern to English-speaking people. The issue of what a person can say, and how they can say it, is crucial to democracy. I'd also like to examine the relationship between homophobia and hate speech.

--Ed Poor

Nearly 20,000 references on Altavista to "hate speech" and around 600 when combined with "homophobia" means people are talking about it. --Ed Poor

You are misunderstanding the complaint: This is a perfectly valid topic - but as presented it is not an article - it is a personal essay with a bunch of questions. Encyclopedia articles should not be written in first or even second person, nor should they present opinions. Hate speech is a well documented phenomonon, and there are specific laws against it in many countries. Research and documentation of such laws, examples of legal cases and other specific instances, and notes on the relationship to propaganda and other topics would make an extremely useful article. This is not something I find interesting myself, hence I choose not to get involved, but hopefully my suggestions will provoke someone to action - MMGB

Look, Ed, you are right that part of the Wikipedia way is to rewrite and improve entries, (and IMHO completely right that Hate speech should be an entry) but ideally the entry should start as something like a real encyclopedia entry, otherwise you're just making work for other people. Keep the discussion on the / Talk pages. Have a good one. :-)

Went back an re-read it and moving the whole thing here for now. No offense intended.

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What is hate speech?

Some say it's speech or writing that deliberately expresses hatred toward a person or group. Others find it a deceptive term used to muzzle someone who merely expresses an idea that a person or group would rather not be publicized.

Some American universities have speech codes that prohibit the expression of certain ideas. The very voicing of such opinions is held to constitute hate speech, regardless of what the speaker claims their motive to be. Many speakers have opposed such speech codes, claiming they constitute a new orthodoxy of political correctness and represent an erosion of the [freedom of speech]? guaranteed in the constitution.

For example, if I say that three times as many black slaves were enslaved by Arabs as by American whites, does that constituted hate speech? And am I hating blacks, or Arabs? Or if I protest slavery in Sudan, again does that make me anti-black or anti-Arab somehow?

Must I be forbidden even to express the idea, in no matter what terms, because the idea itself is considered 'hate speech' and therefore forbidden?