Graduation Speeches, “Hate Speech,” and the CUNY Law Controversy
There’s been a great deal of remark concerning the Metropolis College of New York legislation faculty scholar commencement speaker (Fatima Mousa Mohammed) who devoted a great deal of her speech to harshly condemning Israel and “Zionism,” in addition to capitalism, the New York authorities, and America extra usually. (I embrace the transcript of the speech and a hyperlink to the video on the finish of this put up.)
Past simply the criticism, the CUNY Board of Trustees and Chancellor put out a press release saying,
Free speech is treasured, however usually messy, and is important to the muse of upper training.
Hate speech, nonetheless, shouldn’t be confused with free speech and has no place on our campuses or in our metropolis, our state or our nation.
The remarks by a student-selected speaker on the CUNY Regulation Faculty commencement, sadly, fall into the class of hate speech as they have been a public expression of hate towards individuals and communities based mostly on their faith, race or political affiliation.
The Board of Trustees of the Metropolis College of New York condemns such hate speech.
This speech is especially unacceptable at a ceremony celebrating the achievements of a large variety of graduates, and hurtful to all the CUNY neighborhood, which was based on the precept of equal entry and alternative. CUNY’s dedication to defending and supporting our college students has not wavered all through our 175-year existence and we can not and won’t condone hateful rhetoric on our campuses.
A number of ideas:
[1.] It appears to me that commencement speeches needs to be (to make use of an overused time period) as inclusive as doable, to mark an necessary and pleased event in a approach that the nice bulk of the scholars and their members of the family within the viewers can embrace.
Naturally, they may convey the speaker’s private views, and people views might have some connection to present ideological controversies. However usually talking, it is best if these connections are comparatively muted, and are framed in constructive methods quite than destructive ones. If, as an illustration (to offer a hypothetical from my aspect of the aisle) a speaker needs to reward financial liberty, he in all probability ought to try this quite than rail towards the evil regulators or condemn the supposed depravity of his political adversaries.
Now maybe the speaker right here knew her viewers, and certainly 95% of the viewers enthusiastically helps the view that America is “an empire with a ravenous urge for food for destruction and violence”; that boycotting Israel and Israelis is an excellent factor; that every little thing should be considered via a “critical-imperialism-settler-colonialism lens”; that each Israel and the State of New York are murderous; that the NYPD is “fascist”; that everybody should combat towards, amongst different issues, “capitalism” and “Zionism”; and that the “oppressors” will not be simply mistaken however “wicked.” She was, in spite of everything, chosen to talk, apparently by the 2023 class, although I am unsure how that choice course of labored, and the way many individuals intentionally selected her hoping that she’d give a fiery ideological diatribe.
However my guess is that, even at CUNY Regulation, the message was prone to be profoundly alienating to many within the viewers—a message to bitter quite than to boost commencement day—even when it is enthusiastically accepted by many others. [UPDATE: For a similar argument about a similar controversy in 2019, see Prof. Steve Lubet’s post on Why It Is Wrong to Harangue a Captive Audience at Graduation.]
[2.] This having been stated, the CUNY Trustees do not restrict their condemnation of the speech to commencement ceremonies. Their assertion says extra usually that the speech was “hate speech,” which “shouldn’t be confused with free speech and has no place on our campuses or in our metropolis, our state or our nation.”
That appears to convey the message that such speech (or maybe simply the anti-Israel a part of the speech) isn’t just “hate speech”—a notoriously obscure time period—however is definitely not “free speech.” The implication is that those that say such issues at CUNY, even outdoors a commencement ceremony, could also be punished, on the speculation that their speech “shouldn’t be confused with free speech.”
That may’t be proper, I believe. Even when it is authorized and possible to require public college commencement audio system to be comparatively gentle of their rhetoric (and I am unsure whether or not it’s), actually such speech is absolutely protected by the First Modification when stated in lots of contexts at CUNY: a chat sponsored by a scholar group, leaflets distributed outdoors an occasion, a dialog amongst college students, and extra.
[3.] One mind-set about this, for either side of the controversy, is to ask how we might react if a hypothetical commencement speaker at, say, the College of Florida legislation faculty spent a very good chunk of speak on the next. These are mainly passages from the CUNY speaker’s speech, with Zionism and Israel and anti-Israel rhetoric changed with Palestinian nationalism or Palestinians and the like, and CUNY’s actions towards Israel changed with hypothetical actions towards the Palestinian territories:
On this second of celebrating who we’re, I wish to have a good time Florida Regulation as one of many few, if not the one, legislation colleges to make a public assertion defending the suitable of its college students to prepare and converse out towards [Palestinian nationalism]….
That is the legislation faculty that handed and endorsed [a boycott of people and businesses from the Palestinian territories] on a scholar and school degree…. As [the Gaza government] continues to indiscriminately [engage in violent attacks on Israel], murdering the outdated the younger, … because it encourages [Palestinian terrorists] to focus on [Israeli] properties and companies, … our silence is not acceptable….
We’re the scholar physique and school that fought again when investor-focused admin tried to [interfere with the boycott of Palestinians], saying loud and clear that [Israel] can not be the exception to our pursuit of justice, that our morality is not going to be bought by buyers….
Allow us to keep in mind that [Israel], simply this week, has been bombed with the world watching…. That there are [Israeli] political prisoners like [members of a group that has been accused of targeting Palestinians for violence] in US prisons …. That yesterday marked one 12 months for the reason that homicide of [a US citizen by Palestinian military forces] ….
Might we rejoice within the corners of our [Florida] flats and eating tables. Might it’s the gas for the combat towards [Palestinian nationalism].
No matter our views about who’s proper and who’s mistaken within the Israeli-Palestinian battle, I am inclined to say that we must always have the identical response as I describe above. This materials is not one thing {that a} commencement speaker needs to be saying to an viewers that possible consists of many individuals with completely different views on such topics. It might be well-suited to a chat to a pro-Israel group, or to a debate on who’s proper and who’s mistaken within the Center East, however to not a commencement. On the identical time, such statements are by themselves certainly train of free speech, even when we might imagine they are not appropriate to this explicit event. [UPDATE: Just to be clear, I note above the question whether it’s “legal and feasible to require public university graduation speakers to be relatively mild in their rhetoric”; but my point here is that the contents of the statements itself is free speech, and isn’t somehow stripped of constitutional protection under some “hate speech” theory.]
As as to if such speech is “hate speech,” that is very arduous to inform, given the vagueness of the definition of “hate speech.” Our authorized system avoids this query by not treating “hate speech” as a legally vital time period; I keep away from it by not utilizing the label in my analyses extra broadly. But when others disagree and use the time period “hate speech,” they’re going to want to determine which of the varied definitions needs to be used, after which work out tips on how to apply it to speech such because the CUNY Regulation commencement speech or my hypothetical above. (For example, is speech that harshly condemns Palestinian nationalism meant to sentence a specific nationality, or to incite hostility to that nationality? Or is it simply meant to advertise hatred to a specific ideological perception system that’s carefully tied to a nationality—and would that be sufficient to maintain the speech from being “hate speech”?)
[4.] Lastly, here is a transcript of the speech that my analysis assistant ready, so you possibly can evaluation every little thing in context for yourselves; I additionally hyperlink to the video beneath:
Hey everybody. Thanks, Dean Setty for that introduction. I wish to begin by greeting you all with the greeting I do know finest: Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, might peace and blessings be upon you all. My title is Fatima Mousa Mohammed, and I come to you all from the wealthy soil of Yemen raised by the standard streets of Queens.
It’s my honor, and I am humbled to be standing earlier than you all as a specific class speaker— daytime speaker—of the category of 2023.
To all our family members, our mother and father, grandparents, siblings, companions and mates, our comrades, aunts and uncles, and all of the little youngsters within the crowd. Those that made it, and those that could not. We would not be right here with out you. Thanks to your unwavering love. My mother’s crying so [inaudible] …. Thanks to your unwavering love and help. This celebration is yours. It is a second for individuals who paved the best way for us to be right here. Those that worn out our tears, those that are ready forward, and to these we now should open the doorways. And now to the graduating class of 2023. Earlier than I start I wish to inform you all that my grandparents are in Yemen proper now and so they assured me that there are fireworks lighting up town of Aden, in celebration of all of us. So simply know that oceans away, there’s a complete metropolis on the opposite finish of the earth, it appears like, celebrating you all.
To the category of 2023, the second we now have all been ready for is lastly right here. The category that started this journey throughout a season of grief, a season the place ambulance vehicles have been the one noise on the town and our neighborhoods turned type of ghost cities. The place we watched our immigrant mother and father preserve town on its toes as they noticed our bodies packed into refrigerated morgue vehicles. The category that noticed nothing however black zoom sq. packing containers for the primary two years—there’s quite a bit I can say concerning the loss and the ache we have all endured over the previous couple of years, however I’m reminded of Frantz Fanon’s phrases. “Issues get dangerous for all of us nearly frequently, and what we do beneath the fixed stress reveals who and what we’re.”
So I am right here to have a good time who and what we’re, who you’re. Like a lot of you, I selected CUNY Faculty of Regulation for its articulated mission to the legislation within the service of human wants. One among only a few authorized establishments created to acknowledge that the legislation is a manifestation of white supremacy that continues to oppress and suppress individuals on this nation and all over the world. We joined this establishment … [applause] we joined this establishment to be geared up with the required authorized abilities to guard our communities, to guard the organizers combating endlessly, day out and in, with no accolades, no cameras, no votes, no PhD grants, working to elevate the facade of authorized neutrality and confront the techniques of oppression that wreak violence on them. Techniques of oppression created to feed an empire with a ravenous urge for food for destruction and violence. Establishments created to intimidate, bully, and censor and stifle the voices of those that resist. On this second [applause] …
On this second of celebrating who we’re, I wish to have a good time CUNY Regulation as one of many few, if not the one, legislation faculty to make a public assertion defending the suitable of its college students to prepare and converse out towards Israeli settler colonialism.
That this … [applause] that that is the legislation faculty that handed and endorsed BDS on a scholar and school degree. Recognizing that absent a critical-imperialism-settler-colonialism lens, our work and the college’s mission assertion is void of worth. That as Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshippers, murdering the outdated the younger, attacking even funerals and graveyards, because it encourages lynch mobs to focus on Palestinian properties and companies, because it imprisons its kids, because it continues its undertaking of settler colonialism, expelling Palestinians from their properties, carrying the continuing Nakba that our silent—that our silence is not acceptable.
We’re … We’re the scholar physique and school that fought again when investor-focused admin tried to cross the BDS picket line, saying loud and clear that Palestine can not be the exception to our pursuit of justice, that our morality is not going to be bought by buyers. We’re the category … We’re the category that fought for incarcerated purchasers and zealously filed for his or her clemency functions with practically zero institutional help. We’re the category that fought for purchasers to get asylum, that went to court docket to reunite households torn aside by ACS and the household surveillance. We’re the category that organized towards utilizing LEXIS, a authorized analysis firm contracted with ICE.
And we did all of this despite the racism, despite the selective activism, the self-serving pursuits of CUNY Central, an establishment that continues to fail us, that continues to coach and cooperate with the fascist NYPD, the navy, that continues to coach IDF troopers to hold out that very same violence globally. A bigger establishment dedicated to its donors, to not its college students. I’m right here to remind us all that our existence by itself right now on this room is revolutionary. That as we embark on our authorized careers, we should observe a self-discipline of fact and braveness and maintain ourselves true to the mission assertion we got here to this faculty for. So right now, I have a good time the braveness and bravado that acquired us right here, and I have a good time each second of resilience that units us aside because the primary main public curiosity faculty on this nation.
I see … I see earlier than my eyes, sensible future public defenders. I see sensible immigration attorneys, housing attorneys, enterprise attorneys, civil rights attorneys and motion legal professionals. I see professors and librarians. I see earlier than me future practitioners who will work on contracts to finish partnerships with ICE and never mental property contracts to safe designs for the latest drone know-how murdering kids. I see future legal professionals who will defend tenants in court docket and never those who dispossess our communities from their properties. I see future attorneys who will defend the communities terrorized by the surveillance state and never defend the brokers of oppression that perform that terror. Future legal professionals who will combat to maintain households collectively and never tear them aside. I see future legal professionals who will work to make this world a greater place, one particular person, one motion at a time. I see a category to be rejoiced, a category to be celebrated, a category to be remembered right now and within the years forward. And as we have a good time who we’re right now, allow us to actively combat towards the collective amnesia and cognitive dissonance that limits our understanding of the world to what’s solely instantly earlier than our eyes.
Allow us to bear in mind … Allow us to keep in mind that Gaza, simply this week, has been bombed with the world watching. That day by day, brown and black males are being murdered by the state at Rikers. That there are Palestinian political prisoners like HLF in US prisons, that there are refugees on the southern border nonetheless locked up. That yesterday marked one 12 months for the reason that homicide of US journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and that the homicide of black males like Jordan Neely by a white man on the on the MTA is dignified by politicians like Eric Adams and Senator Chuck Schumer.
We go away our courses and we go away the college to a world that so desperately wants us to face alongside those that have given up, for the sake of liberation, excess of we might think about. So might the enjoyment and pleasure that fills the auditorium right here, might the fad that fills this auditorium, dance within the hallways of our elementary colleges, in our dwelling villages of Sheikh Jarrah, Gaza, and Yemen, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Might we rejoice within the corners of our New York Metropolis bed room flats and eating tables. Might it’s the gas for the combat towards capitalism, racism, imperialism, and Zionism all over the world.
Nobody particular person will save the world. No single motion will liberate the lots. Those that brunt the ferocity of the violence, those that carry the revolution. The individuals, the lots, those that brunt the ferocity of the violence, those that want our safety, they may carry this revolution. The revolution that lives so loudly regardless of not being televised. Not are we going to capitulate to oppressors. Not are we going to place our hope of their wicked consciousness. And, as the nice Malcolm X stated, “We declare our proper on this earth, to be a person, to be a human being, to be revered as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being on this society, on this earth on this day, which we intend to into existence by any means essential.”
So one consumer at a time, one case at a time, one listening to at a time, we’ll present up for communities. We’ll present up for ourselves. And we’ll defend the combat that brings us all nearer to the autumn of all oppressive establishment. A actuality that’s solely myopic and unrealistic to the oppressors, however is the inevitable future for the oppressed, for oppressed individuals in all places. For higher empires of destruction have fallen earlier than and so will these. So to the category of 2023, the combat begins now.
https://youtu.be/2RpvTrB9P_M?t=4581
