Book Launch—Hate: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship

We live in an era in which offensive speech is on the rise. The emergence of the alt-right alone has fueled a marked increase in racist and anti-Semitic speech. Given its potential for harm, should such speech be banned or at least punished?

Join Nadine Strossen in a discussion of her new book, Hate: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship, in which she aims to dispel the many misunderstandings that have clouded the perpetual debates about hate speech vs. free speech. The book presents powerful arguments about how to best protect both freedom and equality.

Strossen will be joined, and challenged, by Richard Ashby Wilson, a legal scholar currently researching incitement and hate speech in the United States since 2016. The conversation will be moderated by Aryeh Neier, president emeritus of the Open Society Foundations.

A reception will follow the panel discussion.

Speakers

• Nadine Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law at New York Law School; from 1991 through 2008, she served as president of the American Civil Liberties Union.
• Richard Ashby Wilson is the Gladstein Distinguished Chair of Human Rights and a professor of law and anthropology at the University of Connecticut School of Law, and is founding director of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut.
• Aryeh Neier (moderator) is president emeritus of the Open Society Foundations.