Is Free Speech Racist?

Debating Race

by Gavan Titley

The question of free speech is never far from the headlines and frequently declared to be in crisis. Starting from the observation that such debates so often focus on what can and cannot be said in relation to  race , Gavan Titley asks why racism has become so central to intense disputes about the status and remit of freedom of speech. 

Is Free Speech Racist?  moves away from recurring debates about the limits of speech to instead examine how the principle of free speech is marshalled in today’s multicultural and intensively mediated societies. This involves tracing the ways in which free speech has been mobilized in far-right politics, in the recycling of ‘race realism’ and other discredited forms of knowledge, and in the politics of immigration and integration. Where there is intense political contestation and public confusion as to what constitutes racism and who gets to define it, ‘free speech’ has been adopted as a primary mechanism for amplifying and re-animating racist ideas and racializing claims. As such, contemporary free speech discourse reveals much about the ongoing life of race and racism in contemporary society.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Far Right, Nonfiction

144 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2020

Reviews

[Sami Eerola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not understand the first part of this book, so 3 stars. It tries to explain the intricasies of racist speech. The second part is about how the far-right uses free speech to gain power to end it. This part is more interesting, because it lays out veru clearly many things that i have tought, but not been able to formulate. For example different tactics that the far-right uses to hide behind free speech, when saying very authoritarian things. Free speech becomes in the far-right rhetoric a chield for critizism and protest that are too speech and protected. So for the far-right free speech is just a way to have a bigger voice than the opressed minorities that they can attack without impunity

[Greg Florez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly well written. Defo worth a read!!!

[Ziggi Chavez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas and thoughts here, but the way this is so overwritten makes the language very unapproachable, and thus creates a barrier in the way of getting any points across. When I tell you it was a struggle to stay awake reading this, I say that from a place of sadness, because it is a smart point. Free speech itself is not racist, but the systems that allow bigotry and backward thinking to perpetuate and challenge progressive inclusivity in the public media sphere are very much operating in a way that slows the educational process of bringing the populace as a whole to a greater understanding of the human condition and experience. To put it in smaller words, a loud and vocal few keep us in a cycle of the argument of whether or not racism is even a thing, and this keeps us frozen in that racist structure because to challenge the status quo, to hold someone accountable to their bigotry is labeled as silencing, and thus heralded as an oppression against the basic first amendment right to free speech. In the end it comes down to the argument in progressive circles that freedom of of speech does not equal freedom from consequences, and that bigotry does not deserve a platform to spread hatred and other discursive ideas.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant book about free speech. Unnecessarily difficult to read.

Rating: 3.5, up to 4 because I love any book that contains complex discussions about free speech. Writing style would be a 1 or 2 for the unnecessarily stilted academic language.

Read over the summer - may forget other significant impressions.

[Elsa Skjong-Arnestad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Denne ble lest for andre gang, en veldig godt argumentert og tettpakket liten bok. Språket er tungt akademisk og rimelig utilgjengelig, og til en sånn grad at det tidvis oppleves ganske unødvendig. Til tross: vel verdt tida den krevde.