There are few things I like less then fraternities, but racist frat brothers is one of them. I'm speaking of course, of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma. Members of Sigma Alpha were caught on video leading a racist chant. Since the video surfaced, the University has shut down the fraternity and also expelled several of it's members. The chant in the video was unquestionably racist, but also unquestionably free speech and expelling a student from a public university because of the content of their speech is unconstitutional. I hate defending racists, but as someone who is politically outspoken, I would be a hypocrite not to defend the right of people to express their opinion no matter how disgusting you or I may find it.
I would like to ask the question: What does expelling these young men actually accomplish? Are they going to suddenly stop being racists because they were expelled for being racist? I doubt it. If anything I think expelling people because of the content of their speech sends the message that they must be stopped because what they have to say is dangerous and contains an element of truth. The reaction among racists will likely be "See these liberals know we are speaking the truth and that's why they're trying to silence us and deny good white people an education. But meanwhile these (insert racial slur) something. Obama something, something."
How about we do the opposite? Treat racists as the silly idiots that they are. Engage these people directly and challenge their views. It may be uncomfortable, but a free society is not always comfortable. The University of Oklahoma is supposed to be an institution of higher learning, how about trying to enlighten these young men?
As Neal Boortz said "Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech by definition, needs no protection".
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