Addressing the Culture of Hate Speech at MTU
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
On Friday, Nov. 10, 2023, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) held their annual celebration for the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Walker Lawn. Throughout the day, they offered anyone the ability to spray paint anything they would like on a board, provided it did not threaten any groups or individuals. Several things spray painted on the board include a crossed-out transgender symbol and phrases such as “trans are mentally ill” and “trans women are’nt women” [sic] being displayed for all passersby to see.
This reflects a larger pattern of MTU enabling hate speech, such as when the MTU administration overruled the self-governance of the undergraduate student government to provide $3,500 in funding for transphobic speaker Brandon Tatum on campus or how the gender-inclusive dorms continue to experience pervasive issues with hate speech related vandalism.
Countless students walked by the boards at the YAF event, with hateful messages proudly painted by other students on display as they traveled to and from class; many of these students are a part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community themselves and have otherwise experienced hate speech targeted at them during their time at the university.
Several times over, I have heard administration pride themselves on being placed first in FIRE’s College Free Speech Rankings (rankings I know several student and faculty members take issue with), but I’d like to call into question how we are approaching free speech at MTU, and how the notion of free speech has become nothing but a catch-all blanket to protect the spread of hate speech.
It’s clear speech is not entirely protected - MTU’s free speech guidelines clearly outline that fighting words, true threats, and incitement, are not protected speech on campus. We agree to limit our speech in these ways when we enroll at or are employed by MTU. Therefore, our speech is not entirely free already, so I’d like to ask, where do we draw the line with free speech, and what is the benefit of allowing rampant hate speech to go unchecked? MTU’s own guidelines, as referenced earlier, state that “while hate speech can be allowable, it can be very harmful to individuals and groups” - so why do we work so hard to defend the damage that hate speech causes?
As an individual, I have taken time out of my day on several occasions to attend training sessions and lectures surrounding the notion of free speech at my university. At every single one, there has been an emphasis placed on the notion that hate speech is free speech. Every time I hear that, it kills me a little inside. To know that any student can approach me, and call me a slur, say that “my type” shouldn’t be allowed at this university, or that I’m a “mentally ill freak pretending to be something I’m not,” and be protected under the guise of free speech eats me alive every day.
By either ignoring or actively disregarding hate speech, the university is complicit in fostering a culture of fear among its most marginalized students, and it needs to take greater action to recognize how this impacts all of us. Every queer student I have talked to on this campus has had an experience with hate speech in one form or another - I had a drink thrown at me not even a month ago for wearing LGBTQIA2S+ earrings, a transgender student told me about how her board has been constantly vandalized for having pro-LGBTQIA2S+ messages, and a non-binary student told me about how their classmates refer to them as “those queers.” In addition to all this, students experience constant misgendering and deadnaming on a daily basis from both faculty and other students.
I can only comment on this board as a queer student, but there are numerous ways that hate speech has been fostered on this campus to target several other marginalized groups, and they need to do better to recognize the impacts that hate speech has on their community. There are several ways that Michigan Tech can move forward in regard to hate speech -
Hate speech is acceptable, and the university will act ambivalently towards it and all forms of speech. If this option is taken, I expect hate to continue to be fostered on campus. We have already seen many individuals mentally distressed by this stance, and it’s only a matter of time until that notion spreads to someone becoming physically harmed. It’s also worth noting this is the university’s current stance.
Hate speech is banned in all forms on campus. MTU deals with the potential ramifications of that action, and no one on campus is able to criticize one another on the basis of their identity.
Hate speech is considered allowable, but the university will take action to support individuals affected by hate speech and work to engage those who spread it. Currently, the onus is on students impacted by hate speech to seek help for themselves, which is an unjust and ineffective means of providing support. In this situation, the administration instead takes a more proactive role to directly support students when hate speech is spread, provide public statements against hate speech (not necessarily banning it, but not supporting it), and work to educate those who spread hate speech. This is what I see as the most reasonable resolution.
As of now, based on the lack of support for queer students on campus, as well as MTU's history of instead providing support to events that spread hate for queer students, I cannot recommend that any prospective LGBTQIA2S+ students apply to MTU without acknowledging that they will need to fight tooth and nail to be heard by their peers and professors, and they will likely have to experience being a target of hate speech during their stay at Michigan Technological University.
There are many faculty members and programs here that strongly support our population, but the onus should not be on our students to rely on those few faculty members (whose freedom of speech is extremely limited due to the nature of their position; as seen with the recent suspension of a faculty member for speaking his mind about the event) for support. If MTU truly wants to demonstrate that it cares for diverse members of its student body, it needs to take a stronger stance to support them, rather than allowing hate speech to go unquestioned.
Sincerely,
A concerned queer student at MTU
Editor’s Note: The identity of the author has been withheld out of concern for their safety.
