Editor’s Note: This is part of a project to better connect the Daily Lobo with the University of New Mexico Communication and Journalism Department.
The University of New Mexico’s Division for Equity & Inclusion and the Office of Equal Opportunity held a webinar Nov. 15 at the LGBTQ Resource Center to highlight the impact of hate speech and establish methods to prevent it on college campuses.
This webinar was presented nationally and online by Senior Campus Counsel Sheila O’Rourke of the University of California, Davis and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity Raquel E. Aldana of the University of California, Davis.
By the early 1990s, more than 350 colleges and universities adopted hate speech codes, according to the New York Times. Free speech is not hate speech. Hate speech is “speech that offends, threatens or insults groups based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability or other traits,” according to the American Bar Association.
“Unfortunately, the issue has been solidified that college campuses are also becoming targets for oppressive speech,” Aldana said.
She said social media in general has become a platform for hate speech.
During the presentation, Aldana referred back to an incident at the University of Pennsylvania where black freshman students were added to a group chat on the “GroupMe” app without their consent and were taunted with racial slurs.
“Students are also demanding not only greater diversity, but also an environment that is conducive to learning for all students,” she said.
The University of California, Berkeley spent $1.4 million on security costs after radio host Ben Shapiro held a speech that resulted in nine arrests.
Shortly after this incident, far-right media personality Milo Yiannopoulos also visited Berkeley in hopes to conduct a speech of his own, only to leave early — the university spent $800,000 on security for an event that did not happen.
UNM Diversity Programs Director Lorena Blanco-Silva said methods of preventing acts of hate speech on UNM’s campus are still a work in progress.
“We’ve done several of these webinars, especially post the Milo event that happened here last year,” she said. “We’re always looking for better ways to understand who can be on our campus and who can’t be on our campus.”
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Blanco-Silva, who attended the webinar, said the goal of college campuses is to encourage everyone to learn and understand different points of view.
“There’s kind of a fine line, because you can say things, but we want to be able to present our perspectives and sometimes it’s challenging for other people to hear it as long as it’s not personally offensive — then that turns into a different issue,” she said.
Colleges and universities are able to prohibit any disruption or interference with speakers, destruction of property and actual violence. Blanco-Silva says as long as nobody is disrupting instruction or impacting classes or students on campus, they are legally allowed to be on campus.
“One of the problems that we run into is that it is an open campus. We’re not a private institution. It’s problematic especially because our campus is such a community campus,” she said.
Lawrence Roybal, the UNM acting vice president for Equity and Inclusion, said this webinar was designed to help prevent hate speech and inform people of its history.
“This webinar was one of the examples of an opportunity for individuals to hear experts nationally and globally who are addressing the issue,” Roybal said. “We consistently have options for our faculty, staff and students to engage here at the University of New Mexico.”
He said the Division for Equity and Inclusion holds their webinars in locations with the most availability, and the LGBTQ Resource Center was open to host this online event.
“I thought it was important and symbolic to have the webinar here today, because the LGBTQ Resource Center, the Office of Equal Opportunity and the Men of Color Initiative partnered with the Division of Equity and Inclusion,” Roybal said.
He said students from the LGBTQ Resource Center often face the different issues that were discussed in the webinar throughout their experience in hosting the event, but hosting the event on their turf was “very symbolic.”
Elias Manriquez is a UNM student enrolled in CJ375 and a guest reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @eliasmanriquez5.