{"id":27604,"date":"2018-11-13T15:27:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T20:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=27604"},"modified":"2022-03-16T10:04:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T14:04:06","slug":"professor-attends-kkk-nazi-rallies-to-teach-dangers-of-hate-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/professor-attends-kkk-nazi-rallies-to-teach-dangers-of-hate-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Attends KKK, Nazi Rallies to Teach Dangers of Hate Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue, which killed 11 people, is a sobering reminder that Americans are not safe.<\/p>\n

That instance, along with the Charleston church killings, the riots in Charlottesville and others, have proven that violence towards minority groups is once again becoming a staple of life in the United States.<\/p>\n

And many scholars are blaming this on a rise of hate speech.<\/p>\n

Nazi and white supremacist rallies have grown in size and strength, allowing members to feed off of each other for reassurance when spewing hateful, racist speech.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, finding a morally confident Nazi wasn\u2019t as easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople had to sort of meet up in somebody’s backyard. They had to be relatively close to have these sorts of Klan gatherings,\u201d said Billie Murray<\/a>, a rhetorical activist scholar and an associate professor of communication at Villanova University.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it is clicks away on the internet and they have a whole community of people to support them and reinforce these sorts of problematic views,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Murray has been attending counter-protests to KKK and Nazi rallies, with a special interest in Antifa protesters, since 2013.<\/p>\n

She dives into the middle of the conflicts to observe actions and rhetoric used by both sides. At the front of police lines, she observes how counter protesters work together to fight against white supremacists.<\/p>\n

She then brings her experiences back to teach her students at Villanova.<\/p>\n

She is currently working on her book, titled \u201cAllied Tactics: Public Responses to Hate Speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emboldening racism <\/b><\/h2>\n

Murray started the project because she was interested in how communities organized against hate groups. Her studies were sparked by attending counter-protests against the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, who led anti-gay rallies at military funerals during the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government and Supreme Court have put it on communities to respond to these hateful rallies with more speech, explained Murray. \u201cMy interest was \u2018what does more speech look like?\u2019,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

When Murray first started attending the events, they were much smaller on both sides. But through 2013 and then the presidential election cycle, she quickly saw attendance rise and hateful rhetoric become emboldened.<\/p>\n

Social media has allowed closeted KKK and Nazi supporters to find a community of like-minded people, making them feel more comfortable and confident in their opinions.<\/p>\n

Many Klan, Nazi and white supremacist groups developed the thought that their style of thinking is a \u201ccredible difference in opinion that should be a part of our discourse and how we understand things,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they see this on a national stage with the rhetoric coming from the Trump administration,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s remarks<\/a> after the violent, deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that \u201cthere is blame on both sides,\u201d for example, makes white supremacists feel that their opinion holds equal weight to those protesting against them.<\/p>\n

What can be done?<\/b><\/h2>\n

\u201cWe have decided as a country that we can\u2019t regulate hate speech, and I disagree with that,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

Although freedom of speech is a pillar of the U.S. Constitution, Murray, along with many others, worry that making room for hate speech can lead to violent hate crimes.<\/p>\n

So without the ability to regulate hate speech, citizens have turned to \u201cmore speech\u201d as a means to retaliate and weaken the claims of white supremacists.<\/p>\n

Many of Murray\u2019s studies have focused on what \u201cmore speech\u201d looks like.<\/p>\n

She has found that LGBTQ communities have successfully combated hate speech by celebrating their identities and diversity.<\/p>\n

Some other counter-protest groups have used combative speech techniques to try to de-platform white supremacists and keep them from furthering their message.<\/p>\n

But silencing these groups is not easy, especially because they are protected by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are given a platform, and police protection is even provided for them,\u201d said Murray. \u201cI rarely see any type of protection or assistance for those people that are engaging in more speech, particularly in a public space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see police violence against even peaceful protestors,\u201d she continued. \u201cThat is really problematic and detrimental to our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protesters aren\u2019t protected from harassment on social media, either, which can also be damaging.<\/p>\n

People who criticize hate speech online can be threatened and harassed, and this can scare people into silence, effectively removing them from the democracy, explained Murray. Failing to create safe spaces for criticism is limiting free speech.<\/p>\n

Key lessons<\/b><\/h2>\n

Developing a new generation of broader-thinking, more accepting people might be the best solution to limiting hate speech and violence in the future.<\/p>\n

Murray teaches her students about the importance of a well-rounded, rhetorical education to create active and responsible citizens and critical thinkers.<\/p>\n

Higher education is \u201cnot just about your job, but about the kind of person you\u2019re going to be, the kind of communities you\u2019re going to be involved in, if you\u2019re going to be involved in those communities in a responsible and ethical way,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

Developing people who think rhetorically is the most sustainable way to preserve a safe, accepting and effective democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue, which killed 11 people, is a sobering reminder that Americans are not safe. That instance, along with the Charleston church killings, the riots in Charlottesville and others, have proven that violence towards minority groups is once again becoming a staple of life in the United States. And many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":27612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,229,570],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-lead-stories","category-villanova-university"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hate-speech.jpeg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hate-speech-224x144.jpeg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hate-speech-300x193.jpeg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hate-speech.jpeg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hate-speech.jpeg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hate-speech.jpeg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hate-speech.jpeg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jackson Schroeder","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/jackson-schroeder\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The recent shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue, which killed 11 people, is a sobering reminder that Americans are not safe. That instance, along with the Charleston church killings, the riots in Charlottesville and others, have proven that violence towards minority groups is once again becoming a staple of life in the United States. And many…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hate-speech.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}