At Drexel University in Pennsylvania, over 20 students walked out of class to protest their professor's absence after he was placed on administrative leave. He had been receiving death threats since making his first controversial post on social media around December of 2016, stating "All I want for Christmas is white genocide", and it was unsafe for him to return to school without a policy officer accompanying him.The university invited him back after a period of time, but he declined and decided to resign because of the burden of the threats that were being made against him. This is not the first time a situation like this has occurred at a university in the U.S, and it raises many questions and debates about free speech.
This article was written by Dan Lieberman at CNN on December 28th of last year. I was not aware before I read this article that incidents like this were going on at universities around the country. This article is important because it poses an interesting debate about when free speech is okay and what its consequences are in some cases. I have conflicting opinions on this topic. On one hand, this professor, Ciccariello-Maher, has the right under the first amendment to say whatever he wants, and he did make the comments on his own time outside of his job. And no matter how controversial his comments were, he doesn't deserve death threats directed at him and his family. On the other hand, while most of his posts were taken out of context, a person should always think about the repercussions their words will have before they say something. He also is a representative of a private institution and he should recognize that his words and actions reflect that institution. According to the article, because he works at a private institution, his first amendment rights are not protected under it.
Synthesis: the events of this article can be connected to the Espionage and Sedition acts during WWI and the Schenck v. United States trial around that time period as well. In all of these cases, free speech became controversial and had limitations were placed on the first amendment. They all reflect that free speech is not always guaranteed and that sometimes people must suffer the repercussions of their words.
I agree with you that no mater what people say, death threats shouldn't be an issue especially with the first amendment protecting someone's right to free speech but he should at least not be careless with what he says.
ReplyDeleteI agree, yes, he does have the right to say what he thinks, but he should be aware that others also have the right to disagree with him and react. And he should've known that being a professor means that whatever you do affects your job.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that a joke on social media, no matter how dumb or insensitive, should be responded to with death threats.
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