PVCC Free Speech Day, Hans Spencer
Ryan Foresman, staff writer
Hawes Spencer was hosted by PVCC for free speech day; his talk was titled “Free Speech, Does it deserve to exist after Aug 12th?” He is also the author of the book Summer of Hate written in the 4 months after the August 11-12 Unite the Right rally.
He asked hard questions about free speech, who deserves it and when. Though not a Charlottesville resident himself, he said, “Charlottesville will be forever associated with racial animosity.”
Spencer addressed social media’s impact on free speech in a way that attempted to be a middle ground between the right and left.
He focused on how the right and left are given platforms on social media, and with that, the subsequent ban of hate groups on the right. This caused questions from students as to the allowances of left wing hate groups that are still given a platform. This was a question that students asked many times during the talk, and Spencer pointed out that there is no law or direct definition of hate speech.
Spencer responded by giving an example from the past, the porn wars of the 1970s was an argument based around an undefinable construct that varied based on context; free speech, he said, is much the same.
The student body in attendance was incredibly diverse in race, political views, and creed. They posed tough questions to Spencer.
Many of these questions were two or three fired off rapid fire at the speaker. Spencer did his best to be quick on his feet and give answers the students looked for.
