The Issue of Free Speech versus Hate Speech in Schools According to Julian Nazar's Article

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Summary and Response
Have you ever been in a situation where someone says something while in a crowd and you are the only person who gets offended? How did you feel? Did you react to what was being said? Well, in her 2018 article titled Where One Hears Free Speech, Another Hears Hate Speech, Julian Nazar handles the same issue albeit in a wider context. In the U.S., the issue of free speech versus hate speech is indeed polarizing. Every time someone says something, people find ways to take offense and others seem to stand in agreement. Nazar talks of how this is slowly but in actual fact becoming a major problem in U.S. campuses. A majority of students believe that hate speech should not be protected. However, many are yet to come to terms with what hate speech entails. There is no universal definition of hate speech and this often brings about subjectivity in discerning what constitutes hate speech and what does not. Nazar includes some statistics in her article which indicate that the majority of students believe disrupting “very controversial speakers” is okay. This is indeed quite subjective and again brings about the issue of defining what controversial means and what should constitute controversial statements. In the end, Nazar is of the opinion that schools should stand by their values and only act when these are threatened.
I agree with most of the ideas described in the article. Nazar does not provide the reader with her stance on the matter but her explication of various opinions points one towards the main ideas. First of all, it is true that people see things differently. Every time a politician says something, people will react to it differently. In an environment like a campus where students come from different walks of life, it is possible to have a statement interpreted differently. However, not all statements are said with the intention of causing havoc or hurting other people. It is okay for students to want to protect institutions against the spread of hate speech. However, disrupting a speaker or heckling ...