Is Hate Speech a Necessary Part of the Truth?

By: Marley Weaver-Gabel, Editor in Chief

On Wednesday, November 14, Romero House welcomed students and friends into their home for a hospitality night titled Freedom of Speech, Hate Speech & Crimes. Dr. Rob Margesson joined the group as the guest speaker for the evening to guide discussion and provoke thought and commentary throughout the night.

The night started out with a delicious meal of traditional ethiopian cuisine, cooked by three of the Romero House residents. As guests arrived in pairs or alone, friends greeted each other and sat together to share a meal. After getting hands deep into spicy lentils and well prepared potatoes, the group of roughly 15 students hushed themselves and started discussion.

Dr. Margesson started the discussion by sharing the theory of the marketplace of ideas, which proposes that the only way to understand the truth and the good, we must come into confrontation with the false and the bad. This theory also explains that in order to engage in critical inquiry, we must have access to an abundance of ideas, including those which we may find wholly repugnant. So if we believe in this marketplace of ideas, does hate speech aid in the search for truth?

This was the question that students engaged in throughout the night with thoughtful commentary and inquiry. In discussion, the conversation touched on topics regarding the meaning of truth, the role of the oppressed, and the invitation of hate speech on to college campuses.

“Truth is not only known, but it is felt too,” comments Veronica Postit. With this comment, students faced what the truth is and how it can be defined, either as subjective or objective. There is no clear cut answer of the truth, which is one of the reasons it becomes so important that we are participants in the marketplace of ideas. The free sharing of ideology creates a space to understand truths that can be subjective to each individual.

Through the evening, the conversation transitioned towards the question of obligation. Nick Aranda asks, “Who carries the obligation of understanding the others truth?” The question guided students to reflect about the roles of the oppressor fighting for their own humanity. If not the oppressed, than who will stand up? Does it then inherently become the marginalized to confront the oppressors? While this is a compelling argument, Isaiah Pramuk suggests, “It can really hurt us if we push too far into it.” In many ways, there is a certain level of self care that we must consider when confronting discrimination. Context matters and each person can only do their best, based on their abilities in the moment.

Another large theme addressed the invitation of hate speech into our spaces. Considering the marketplace of ideas, one could say that inviting hate speech into our spaces is a necessary evil to be able to confront those volatile ideologies. Students were hesitant to embrace this idea, instead cautioning that these ideas could become more polarizing and for those who are under informed, it could become their truth.

Leaving Romero House, I had more questions than I came with and more thoughts that I continue to organize. In this safe, comfortable space, with well educated and thoughtful young justice seekers, I found myself comforted by this community. This conversation did not address specific actions, nor did it address our multitude of grievances in response to the hate that has infiltrated our school. Instead, it brought together truth seekers and gave us a space to not react with hate, but react with thoughtfulness in the face of those statements we fundamentally disagree with. THIS is what it means to me to be part of a social justice university.

Hate Crimes Community Forum

By: Sally Andarge, Social Media Editor

On November 9, Regis hosted a Hate Crimes Community forum in Claver Hall, room 315. Guest speakers at the forum included a panel of law enforcement officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, and the Denver Police Department.

Tensions across our campus are high given the recent white supremacist notes that found their way around campus and the March Against Hate to rise against them. In a moment like this, question of hate crimes are inevitable.The forum was timely following the acts of extreme hate that have occurred on our campus in the past two weeks, impacting community members on and off campus.  

The forum kicked off with a few words from Father Fitzgibbons. He called the Regis community to put political difference aside in order to eradicate hate and recognize one another for who we really are.

After his speech, Father Fitzgibbons called the Assistant District Attorney of Denver to give a quick introduction to the history of hate crime law and what exactly constitute a hate crime.

He started by explaining to the audience that there are a series of federally protected classes. Those classes are race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, and ability. Luckily, Colorado is one of the few states that considers sexual orientation a protected class even though federal law does not. Colorado added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes in 2009.

He then moved on to what constitutes a hate crime. He explained that criminal acts are usually deemed hate crimes when there is evidence of hateful ideology. The example that he gave was the Charleston church shooting, where 21-year-old white supremacist, Dylann Roof, killed nine African American church goers during a prayer service. He explained that it wasn’t deemed a hate crime just because all of the victims were people of color, the evidence that made it a hate crime were his personal journal and social media posts where he had openly racist and white supremacist statements. This allowed them to link his targeted attack on people of color to white supremacist ideology.

It is so unfortunate that in 2018 we still consistently see hate crimes and hate speech. In a time where we find so much progress, alarming events like these still shock us to the reality of deeply founded fear and hate. When faced with these acts as a community, it is critical we understand the law and protections against hate. These events are not isolated to just our campus, in fact, in 2015 there were 107 hate crimes that took place in Colorado alone. We hope that as a community (and eventually as a society) that we will be able to overcome hate.

The Plagiarists

Click on photos to scroll through the gallery!

By: Frances Meng-Frecker, Head Photographer

The six-member Regis professor/faculty band includes Alyse Knorr, David Hicks, and Scott Dimovitz from the English department, Don Bush from the Accounting department, Allison Peters from the Office of the First-Year Experience, and Alex Benedict the Senior Instructional Technologist. They performed in Walker’s Pub on Friday November 2and filled the student center. Students, families, and Regis faculty and staff enjoyed the two-hour concert, danced, and sang along with the band. The Plagiarists played songs from David Bowie to Amy Winehouse to Elvis Presley and many more. It was a joy to watch them perform and do something they love. Everyone had fun and I know for a fact that I am looking forward to their next concert, and I am certain that other people are too.  

Colin Kaepernick and the importance of his message

By: Rose Ferrie, Staff Reporter

For those of you who didn’t know, this past week was Social Justice Week; there were many events pertaining to issues like feminism, anti-hate speech and sustainability. I attended an event regarding police brutality and Black Lives Matter. The Colin Kaepernick talk was a forum to open up the discussion about Black Lives Matter and police brutality, the criminalization of black men and men of color, and what Colin’s actions did for them.

I got to talk to Awah Tilong, the President of BSA, and a few of their members before the conversation to see what their goals were for this event. She said she wanted this to be a space for a productive conversation, for people to speak their truth, and be comfortable to disagree. Minds were not going to be changed in one conversation, maybe not ever, but this was a place to educate and increase apathy.

Once people had settled in, Damien Thompson, faculty advisor of BSA and professor here at Regis, set some ground rules for the night. This was a safe space, speak from the heart without judgement, listen from the heart with no need to agree, don’t rehearse your argument truly listen, be mindful of everyone and let all have a turn to speak.

This program was broken into 3 sections: “speed dating” (fast two person conversations), small group discussion, and a big group discussion. Talking one-on-one with people and asking how they felt about the Kaepernick situation was eye opening. One idea stuck with me and I have continued to ponder it: Did Kaepernick’s kneeling controversy end up distracting people from his initial purpose of raising awareness for police brutality against Black people? He may have had good intentions but his act of kneeling was twisted into a sign disrespect to America and its troops, his purpose was often lost in the media. He was able to disturb millions of Americans weekly Sunday rituals of watching Sunday football, he rocked that boat and started a conversation, just maybe not the one he was hoping for.

The conclusion of the night was that the criminalization of Black boys and men is a serious issue and Colin Kaepernick leveraged his social positioning to make a statement by kneeling during our national anthem. This situation was ostracized from being a peaceful protest for police brutality to disrespecting America and American troops. We are so patriotic that we disregard the racism right in front of us. Racism is rampant and blatantly so in the acts of brutality that affect African American men and boys as well as other men and boys of color. I do not wish to change anyone’s feelings about this situation, the goal of this conversation was not to prove a right or wrong but to get to the root issue: not every American is equal. The importance of what Kaepernick did and what this talk concluded with is that we need to address the attack on boys and men of color. They are being killed because of what they look like by people who should be protecting them. They are Americans and we need to live up to “liberty and justice for all”.

Advocacy Is For Everyone: Lessons from IFTJ

By: Catie Cheshire, Co-Editor in Chief

As part of social justice week, students who attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ) in Washington D.C. November 3-5 shared reflections on their experience and plans for future action in an event called “IFTJ, Action, and Healing.” Not everyone who went on the trip participated in the event, but it began with those who did (Natalie Nielsen, Anahi Ramos, Ethan Strouse, Amelia Rouyer, and Kate Penick) sharing memorable moments are lessons learned.

The conference is two days of breakout speakers and advocacy training with a focus on the Jesuit values that can influence how we discuss policy with our elected representatives. The final day of the conference is devoted to meeting with policy aides on the hill and using the advocacy skills learned at the conference. The theme of this year’s conference was Discipleship at the Crossroads.

“The community of Jesuit schools was impressive to me,” Penick said. “The common background we all come from was special throughout the weekend.” Strouse seconded her thoughts with a comedic story about the “mass Mass” that took place Sunday evening on the second day of the conference. That many people from Jesuit educational backgrounds coming together is something unique about ITFJ that Regis students felt defined the conference.

Despite the fact that every breakout session or keynote relates social justice issues back to Jesuit values, Ramos stressed the variety of topics available for conference-goers to pick from. Ramos has gone to IFTJ twice now, and said that this time around she was able to learn about different subjects than she had before. She also stressed that advocacy isn’t nearly as intimidating as she thought.

“The nerves disappear once you’re in the conversation and can share your stories and views and be heard by people who have a say,” Ramos said. For Nielsen, who has attended IFTJ three times and was the student leader of the trip this year, her growth within advocacy from year one to year three of IFTJ has encouraged her to consider a career in politics after she graduates from Regis.

Nielsen used her third year as a chance to learn from others. She expressed that, for her, a lot of the experience was listening to what others are doing and trying to figure out how to bring that back to Regis.

For that reason, the second half of the event focused on actions. The participants shared DOs and DON’Ts for advocacy, and introduced a new event that will take place at Regis in the Spring: Advocacy Day. During Anti-Oppression Week one day will involved Regis students lobbying on Capitol Hill here in Denver.

The other action was participants at the even writing letters to Casa de Paz, an organization that provides support for people whose family members are detained or are coming out of detention centers. Casa de Paz is a local organization that has helped over 1,000 families and counting. The letters were written to express solidarity for people unjustly held in detention and will be delivered to families soon.