The Boston Globe reports:
A judicial panel at Tufts University on Thursday ruled that a conservative campus journal “harassed” blacks by publishing a Christmas carol parody called “O Come All Ye Black Folk” that many found racist.
The Primary Source, which published the carol, removed the lyrics from their site months ago, and replaced them with a rather sincere apology. The note makes clear that the carol was intended as an affirmative action parody. Does that make sense? Not to this panel. They issued a requirement that an editor sign all pieces, and “recommended that Tufts’ student government ‘consider the behavior’ of the magazine when allocating money.”
Bruce Reitman, the dean of students, found this financial threat, well.. rather elegant.
I’m proud of the committee,” he said. “I was pleased to see them balance both values of freedom of speech and freedom from harassment, without letting one dominate the other.
Aren’t we glad there’s someone like Bruce Reitman fighting against the domination of free speech? Thank heavens.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. Thomas Jefferson
I don’t see what the problem is. Nothing is absolute and we have to balance rights all the time. In this case Tufts is balancing the constitutional right to free speech against the constitutional right to be unharrassed, which in this case means hearing something about yourself you don’t like.
I don’t actually recall the amendment that protects us from being offended but I’m sure it’s in there somehwere…perhaps emanations from the penumbra of the Third Amendment.