CIVILITY IN THE STREETS Presenter: Laura Beth Nielsen, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Legal Studies at Northwestern University, Research Professor for the American Bar Foundation On and #civility Moderator: Tiffany Middleton, Program Manager, American Bar Association Division for Public Education On This program is part of Civility and Free Expression in a Constitutional Democracy—A National Dialogue, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and conducted in partnership with the American Bar Association Division for Public Education. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Bar Association, or any of its program partners.

I will use words that many people find offensive during this presentation. To fully understand one another, the problem, and the possibilities for change, using the actual words is important. And yet, some words have the power to silence and to intimidate. A warning

Why study speech in the street?  John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty  Truth drives out falsity (eventually becomes the so- called “free marketplace of ideas”)  John Milton:  Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties  First Amendment to the Constitution  Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble...

What do we know about racist and sexist speech?  In education, Stereotype Threat  African-American students performed more poorly on standardized tests at the invocation of race  Later extended to stereotyped individuals of all sorts   In the workplace  Recognized as a violation of Title VII because sexual harassment is discrimination  And invocations of sexual harassment achieve performance anxiety

Survey Questions  Race  Sex

Begging – Mostly Not Protected Speech

Sexual Harassment – Probably Protected

Racist Public Speech – Mostly Protected Might not be protected Protected

Who Has Free Speech in Public?  Racist hate speech including cross-burning  usually done by members of dominant social group – whites, to members of a subordinate group – people of color)  Sexually harassing speech  (usually perpetrated by members of dominant social group – men, to members of a subordinate social group - women)  Begging  usually done by members of subordinate social group – people in poverty, to members of a dominant group – people the think have money Protected SpeechUnprotected Speech

Frequency of Respondents’ Experiences with Offensive Public Speech by Race and Gender

Conclusions  A more complex version of free speech  One that considers equality, location, power, privilege, and threat.

Street Harassment as a personal problem, social problem, and favoring legal limits