Speech Code at Dalhousie U. (Canada) [I know I may regret sending this out in mail received but I be

[David Farber <>]

From: kadie () cs uiuc edu (Carl M Kadie)
Subject:  [Parker-L] Speech Code at Dalhousie U. (Canada)
Message-ID: <CLJpr3.Iwo () cs uiuc edu>
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 23:11:26 GMT


[Copyright 1994 by Parker Barss Donham.  All rights reserved.
Posted with permission.


Parker Barass Donham writes a column on free speech issues in the
Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) Daily News. His columns (and a
discussion) are also available via email. To subscribe, send a message
to listserv () nstn ns ca with the usual line:
 subscribe Parker-L <YOUR FULL NAME>


- Carl]


Parker Barss Donham's column                     20 February 1994
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     I don't have a daughter at Dalhousie, but if I did, I'd be
darned sore at the University Senate for assuming she needed
special protection from the rigors of free speech.


     That's the condescending message hidden in last week's vote
to establish a code against discriminatory harassment at Dal.
The senate thinks women, blacks, natives, and gays are no match
for the sexists, bigots, and knaves they'll encounter in life.


     But that's not what Nichet Smith thought when she came upon
a racist flyer at Arizona State University, where she was a
third-year student in justice studies.  Smith and three friends,
all of them black women, were visiting a campus residence when
they noticed a mock application for minority job seekers tacked
to an apartment door.


     The flyer's hateful, racist stereotypes filled the women
with anger and hurt.  What they did _ and did not do _ is
instructive.  Nat Hentoff recounts the story in his book, (BOLD)
Free Speech for Me _ But Not For Thee, (ROMAN) a survey of the
movement to impose political orthodoxy on U.S. campuses.


     Powered by their own anger, the women pounded on the door of
the apartment, demanding to know who had put up the poster.  The
occupant who answered stressed that he was not responsible, and
that he understood why they were angry.  He agreed to take the
poster down.


     Next, the women organized a residence-wide meeting.  About
50 students, half white, half black, showed up for a spirited
discussion of race relations at the university.  ``It's offensive
to me as a white person,'' a female student said, ``because it
looks like all white people feel that way.''


     The meeting led to an anti-racism rally, a news conference
by black students, an evening program at the residence on
African-American history, and more discussions of race relations
among more students of both races.  The school newspaper was
flooded with letters, including one that read:


     ``We would like to extend our sincerest and deepest
apologies to anyone and everyone who was offended by the
tasteless flyer that was displayed on our front door. . . .  We
did not realize the hurt that would come of this flyer.  We now
know that we caused great distress among many different people
and we would again like to apologize.''


     These four black women didn't run from the hateful challenge
thrown up at them.  Equally important, they did not ask the
university to ``protect'' them by invoking the school's speech
code.  Instead of trying to silence their adversaries _ a
strategy that would only have turned them into martyrs _ the
women confronted them, and overwhelmed them with the moral and
intellectual force of their arguments.


     The students who put up the racist flyer learned a lesson,
too, one that could change their outlook permanently.  In short,
everyone benefitted from what John Stuart Mill described as ``the
clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by
its collision with error.''


     That's not the approach a majority of the Dalhousie Senate
thinks students should take in similar circumstances.  The senate
expects offended minorities to cower in fear of their
adversaries, file anonymous complaints, invoke secret
disciplinary procedures.


     The imposition of a speech code is a declaration of
educational failure:  a failure to reach those who harbor
offensive, ignorant ideas, and a failure to equip women and
minority students with the skills and confidence needed to
confront and overcome such louts.


     If racist and sexists attitudes are allowed out in the open,
those who know better will at least have an opportunity to
challenge them.  But at Dalhousie, students who arrive with
bigoted views will henceforth keep their own counsel _ and leave
four years later with their retrograde ideas in tact.


     The sanctification of victimhood for women and minorities
was vividly evinced by Jennifer Bankier, a professor of law who spoke
in favor of the speech code.  Like many who seek to silence those who
disagree with them, Bankier fancies herself a believer in free speech.
Indeed, she told the senate she had come to Dalhousie for the very
purpose of finding free speech, only to discover that, as a woman, she
was not free to speak, because she was treated as a heretic.


     Bankier's lack of access to free speech is not immediately
evident.  She is a full, tenured professor at one of the nation's
most distinguished law schools.  She is a voting member of the
University's governing senate.  The Dalhousie Faculty Association
recently elected her its president.  She was one of the most
persistent voices in favor of the speech code.


     With such achievements, Bankier ought to inspire young women
entering Dalhousie.  Instead, she proclaims herself a victim,
deprived of free speech by the usual culprits:  middle-aged,
white, heterosexual men.


     What a pathetic self-portrait _ for Professor Bankier, and
for Dalhousie.






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Copyright (c) 1994 by Parker Barss Donham.   All rights reserved.
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 Parker Barss Donham     |  R.R. 1,  Bras d'Or,   |  (902) 674-2953 (vox)
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