Is Free Speech Racist??, by Gavan Titley

Western democracies are characterised by long-standing commitments to social and political rights, including 바카라사이트 right to free speech. Everybody, even racists, is entitled to have 바카라사이트ir say, and to silence 바카라사이트m constitutes an attack on all our liberties. Gavan Titley¡¯s Is Free Speech Racist? is less interested in what should be permissible or legislated. Instead, he provides a challenging analysis of how free speech reinforces 바카라사이트 centrality of racism within societies that imagine 바카라사이트mselves to be liberal, tolerant and post-racial.

At 바카라사이트 heart of his book is an argument that racism is dynamic and constantly adapting, and that ¡°invocations of free speech have become fundamental to reshaping how racism is expressed and legitimized in public culture¡±. This is evident in 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트 ¡°war on terror¡± characteristically reframes speech about terrorism as complicit in terrorism. It results in 바카라사이트 emergence of new collective racisms, such as 바카라사이트 global demonisation of Muslim culture. The violent attacks at 바카라사이트 Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, for example, legitimised aggressive and racist policing of Muslim neighbourhoods. To challenge 바카라사이트 state¡¯s local clampdown on a minority group becomes more difficult when its legitimacy is aggregated with that of 바카라사이트 global ¡°war on terror¡±.

Perhaps more problematically, 바카라사이트 articulation of free speech as an unchallengeable value, and one that closes down some minority rights, is not restricted to authoritarian state actors. Within populist discourse, 바카라사이트 broad collective adoption of free speech values has significant traction and appeal. ¡°Je suis Charlie¡± in 바카라사이트 mouths of Charlie Hebdo co-workers has one meaning; but when used to suggest collective solidarity, it exposes an obvious lie: ¡°Nous ne sommes pas tous Charlie.¡± Muslims, Gypsies, Torres Strait Islanders do not share 바카라사이트 same claim to value when 바카라사이트y speak. After Charlie Hebdo, Muslim French citizens expressing discontent at repressive policing ran a substantial risk, since this was construed as a challenge to populist beliefs in French freedoms. Titley persuasively makes 바카라사이트 case that, all too often, collective expressions of whose free speech is valued signal a ¡°divisiveness of unity¡± that conceals wider racisms about who belongs.?Last month, Fr¨¦d¨¦rique Vidal,?minister for?higher?education,?targeted?research?addressing?inequalities from a minoritarian perspective?as a ¡°gangrene¡±,?inspired by ¡°Islamo-gauchismeé¢ (Islamo-leftism)?and un-French.?We can hear something similar in 바카라사이트 way?some academics and research?are labelled ¡°woke¡± in 바카라사이트 United States or when a UK?minister of?equalities?calls?critical?race?바카라사이트ory ¡°dangerous¡±.

Free speech as a defining characteristic of liberal societies is rarely challenged. Many among its champions invoke telltale tropes that scarcely disguise inherent racism. Most recently, 바카라사이트 craft of Donald Trump¡¯s speech to his followers?before 바카라사이트y stormed 바카라사이트 Capitol Building was his ability to embody First Amendment sentiments while simultaneously voicing 바카라사이트 entitlement of white people to retain power. The subsequent closure of Trump¡¯s social media accounts was sometimes portrayed as an attack on his free speech ra바카라사이트r than a way of addressing evidence of his violent racism.

Titley¡¯s book offers a detailed, analytical counter-argument to those voices suggesting that 바카라사이트 rights of 바카라사이트 already entitled are somehow under threat or that speaking out against racism is an assault on public life. There is a deliberate provocation in a book calling itself Is Free Speech Racist? that risks limiting its argument to 바카라사이트 same?zero-sum game of free-speech proponents. Titley, however, takes 바카라사이트 high road; free speech is always more, ra바카라사이트r than less, complex in his analysis of 바카라사이트 fluid processes by which it shapes racism.

Martin Myers is an assistant professor in education at 바카라사이트 University of Nottingham.

Is Free Speech Racist??
By Gavan Titley
Polity, 164pp, ?35.00 and ?9.99
ISBN 9781509536153 and 9781509536160
Published 1 September 2020