Question Two

Hate speech is defined as being "principally racist and anti-Semitic speech" by the Free Speech Museum page. I have also read other definitions that are broader, of which include speech that degrades people based on gender, sexual orientation, appearance, etc. From this page I learned that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment which means that unless there is another legal area that the speech falls into, the hate speech can't be prohibited by law. I think that hate speech is a touchy subject because so many of us have been on the giving and/or receiving end of hate speech. Words can be psychologically painful to people, but because these words do not harm us physically there is no law to support action against hate speech. There have been efforts against both censorship and  hate speech which has caused a debate between the opposing sides. I'm against censorship because I feel that hate speech is a reflection of our society, and by censoring it we are pushing it under a rug as if it is no longer there in society. If people are against hatred than let hate speech be a reflection of how far we still have to go to get to a place where people don't have so much hatred against others. I can understand how banning hate speech would help eliminate it based on the fact that it wouldn't be around us so much. But I would like to see less and less of hate speech because people are becoming more tolerant rather than the reason being that they are not allowed to express those feelings. I believe it does go against our constitutional right to freedom of speech by censoring hate speech. If people really want to decrease hate speech they have to get to the root of the speech, which is the negative views the person is carrying in the first place. Often enough people reach a point where they let their hatred consume them to the point where they will express it verbally in public places, and arresting someone for this is not going to change the fact that people feel this way in the first place. I think that more teachers and parents teaching tolerance is one great way to reduce hate speech.