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Continuing Conversation on Race and White Privilege: Freedom of Speech
May 5 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Free
Free speech is guaranteed by the first amendment of our Constitution. But, is everyone consistently allowed to exercise their FULL freedom of speech rights ?? Whose speech is protected? And whose isn’t? When is free speech allowed? Under what circumstances? What does it mean for our democracy?
In this session on May 6, 2025, we explore how power hierarchies of identity groups based on race, religion and other attributes result in accessibility or inaccessibility to free speech rights. Over the last year, we saw an escalation in the application of this ‘free speech hierarchy’ to some groups while punishing others for doing the same thing. And it’s only getting worse. We also present examples of how free speech discriminations are manifesting on University campuses and in Princeton civic life.
Ruha Benjamin is Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019), Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (2022), and Imagination: A Manifesto (2024). Ruha is the recipient fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award, President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton, and most recently the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship. For more info, visit www.ruhabenjamin.com
To register for the Zoom link, click here.