Writers and Hate Speech

Since the 90s, the American legal community has condoned the abridgement of the first Amendment. The defense of Hate Speech legislation depends on equating it to yelling "Fire!" in a crowded auditorium. It equates words to flames, and assumes if we throw certain diction onto a crowd, we bear responsibility for the consequences, and they do not. Since when has the American public been so stupid that they cannot distinguish between a speaker and a flame-thrower?

No individual is immune from being fired up by hate speech. Every day when I came home from school, my mother repeated to her bedeviled daughter: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." My classmates' words did hurt, though, and I buried my head in her shoulder, as she steeled me against human cruelty. She offered this antidote, too: "Let the words flow like water off a duck's back." So, I let the words flow-and became a writer.

Writers need a full vocabulary. No words were off limits in the house where my son grew to be a man. He said he hated me, too, and I knew that he was passing through a phase of rebellion-ugly but true. I gave him pens and paper the minute I knew he would apply the former to the latter. I never censored what he wrote: That was between him and his conscience. I never censored his books. Instead, I took the trouble to make sure he read the best of every kind of literature that I could find. He became a lawyer and continues to make his own decisions.

I had my own phase of rebellion, and it spawned pages upon pages of furious prose. Yes, I hate! I hate as surely as I love and grieve and cherish and turn downright giddy with verbal explosions. Without these outbursts, I would not be the person I am. From very bitter lessons, I recognize that strangers may not sympathize with my verbal overflow, and, as an adult, I do not inflict my linguistic spasms upon them. But neither do I imprison myself in false piety. If I did not let the words flow from my heart onto the page, my fury might burn up numerous counselors. As it stands, they always told me: "Just keep on writing!"

Editing means that I know the difference between outrage and communication, between abuse and communication, too. I do not abuse editors or readers with raw emotion. But raw emotion is the only way I know how to turn on the tap that leads to publication. If I edit my work too soon, I give myself writer's block. If I don't edit it at all, I turn out the equivalent of a child's scribbling. Nevertheless, Joseph Campbell made clear that the creative child yearns within all of us to accomplish that eternal dream. That child needs nurture and a proper upbringing. So does the American public. Prejudice cannot be cured by editing.

Hate requires years of writing-and the best possible education-to resolve. I do not hate stereotyped categories because I have been hated for being too short, too loud, too female, too humble, too funny, too talkative-and, worst of all, too honest. Writers should be the first ones to realize that we cannot outlaw emotion. We cannot confuse words with actions. We cannot win the battle for tolerance by words alone. Most of all, we cannot give up the freedom to speak from the heart. We can only liberate our minds to seek the truth, wherever it resides. Then, our readers will not wish they were deaf and dumb, too.

In pursuit of this quest, Wikipedia offers an overview of the pro and con issues raised by hate speech laws. Most profoundly for writers, under the second category, this resource deserves credit for pointing the public to consider the words of George Orwell: "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." Furthermore, they elaborate as follows: "To account for every possible way a phrase may be found offensive is not only impossible, but a hindrance to freedom of expression and even thought." Since numerous websites threaten to refuse material for distribution if it contains "inflammatory or derogatory" diction, we can only wonder what these words mean.