Critical Thinking

Name
Professor
Course
Date
Critical Thinking: Hate Speech
Different people view hate speech differently. However, most of the government agencies and institutions categorized human rights sentiments as hate speech. This has led to some civil rights movements to be labeled as spreading hate speech. Erik Nielson in his article “If We Silence Hate Speech, Will We Silence Resistance?” examine hate speech. His article focuses on how government agencies label some of the civil rights movements as being the instigators of hate speech. From Erik’s point of view, civil rights groups that are most affected by the victimization are those led by people of color; African Americans and other non-Americans. Erik emphasizes that there should be clear guidelines in what constitutes hate speech.
Erik in support of his claim uses examples of movements that have faced opposition for allegedly spreading hate speech. The movements are from as far as back as the 1970s with individuals such as Malcolm X fighting for equality to the recent events that saw the formation of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. All these faced some oppression from the government for spreading hate speeches (Nielson). Erik uses these events as they are relevant to the issue in question. All these examples are credible as they represent events that occurred.
From my point of view, any organization has the right to lobby for their rights as it is presented in the constitution. As long as the movements do not advocate for violence, they have the right to hold peaceful demonstrations so that they can be heard.

Political organizations and government agencies should not use their powers to label these movements as criminal. People of color are part of the United States and suppressing their freedom of expression goes against what the constitution stands for.

Work Cited
Nielson, Erik. “If We Silence Hate Speech, Will We Silence Resistance?” The New York Times, 2018. HYPERLINK “https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/opinion/if-we-silence-hate-speech-will-we-silence-resistance.html” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/opinion/if-we-silence-hate-speech-will-we-silence-resistance.html