speech and respect - College of Social Sciences and International ...

Taking Sides
was forced to resign after indelicately declaring that he had
appointed a Jew, a Negro, and a cripple to a committee. Political
candidates quickly learn that visibility brings responsibility. American
Jews have never forgiven Jesse Jackson for calling New York
"Hymietown" during his 1988 Presidential campaign; Italian-Americans
were similarly incensed by Bill Clinton's suggestion to Cennifer
Flowers that Mario Cuomo acted as though he had Mafia
connections. 83 Celebrity gained through artistic, athletic, or entrepreneurial
prowess also enhances a speaker's impact. J. Peter Grace,
chairman and CEO of the chemicals conglomerate W.R. Grace &
Co. and director of Reagan's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control,
was forced to apologise when he praised Wisconsin's Republican
Governor Tommy G. Thompson by saying: "He doesn't have much
competition. Where I come from we have Cuomo the homo, and
then in New York City, we have Dinkins the pinkins." 84 Recognising
that the disciplinary powers of police, prison warders, and teachers
add weight to their words, American courts uphold limits on their
speech, despite the First Amendment. 85 Responsibility is diluted
when the speakers are collective: committee reports, mass entertainment,
demonstrations. Reputation also can undercut a message.
When Patrick Buchanan sought to revive his failing Presidential
campaign by maligning a public television programme about gay
black men, the response was strangely muted. An ActUp spokesman
explained: "Buchanan is just so vile it's almost redundant to say it."
Another activist added: "Buchanan ... is not a new homophobe;
he's an established homophobe." 86
2. Motive. Although motive is elusive, unstable, and opaque, it
has enormous influence on the effects of speech. Worse motives
always aggravate harm, although good motives may not prevent it—
as defamation law acknowledges. Students at Pierce College in Los
Angeles complained about an AIDS awareness poster showing HIVpositive
victims being bashed by bigots, losing weight, developing
cancer, and dying—even though it declared: "no disrespect is
intended by this depiction of human suffering." 87 Advocates of state
regulation usually make exceptions for the good motives presumed
in scholarly inquiry, news reporting, art, or political debate. Yet
audience interpretation remains critical; because motive can be
feigned, the speaker's avowal is never conclusive. Ambiguity increases
the risk of discordant interpretations.
Context can invert motive totally: compare the 1937 Nazi exhibition
of "Entartete Kunst" (Degenerate Art) with its reconstruction half
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