We’ve seen them on campus — the protesters picketing on the intersection of Cady and Orange malls. They hold long vertical banners, condemning “fornicators,” “gays,” “lesbians” and all “masturbators.” They spew profanities, while they preach religious principles to save ASU’s population from an eternity in hell.
There appears to be a division among the student body: those who actively engage, purposefully eliciting responses, and those who are genuinely offended. The latter is a group of students who are solemnly insulted. They don’t challenge the protesters’ hate speech; they merely carry on with their day, hoping to have as little contact with the demonstrators as possible.
But there are students who antagonize the picketers. They call them out and shout equally offensive vulgarities. Some students post pictures of the picketers online and are encouraged by a string of Facebook comments or Twitter retweets. Passersby feel invigorated by students who speak up, the students who counter hate speech with language that’s passionate, but somehow tempered by logic.
After all, these students are saying what other students are unwilling to say, right?
Ironically, the students who speak out are sometimes guilty of similar hate speech. They shout things like “You’re going to hell!” or profanities of a sexual nature, in what seems like a competition on who can say the more offensive thing first.
Student after student crowds around these protesters wondering what’s going on. The question among the crowd is unspoken, but clear: Who among us is going to speak out first?
While it’s no doubt challenging to refrain from speaking out against such hate speech, it might be the best call of action. We unintentionally validate what these demonstrators say and we corroborate their self-perceived importance when we raise our voices at them. It is our rally of students that brings attention to their hateful words, not necessarily the words themselves.
When we take pictures or record with our phones, we not only give credit to their message but we repeat it, over and over again, for our Facebook friends to see. We allow thoughts of hate to seep into our minds. We allow words of discrimination and prejudice to inform the way we think.
Then again, it would be disingenuous to undercut the degree of excitement we feel when we see one of these protesters on campus. We wonder what’s going to happen, how heated things will get and even if things will escalate to violence. But these verbal altercations between student and picketer don’t vary much from case to case. When negative attention is better than no attention, we encourage their presence on campus every time we provoke them.
Although it’s important to think about the source of their hatred, it is perhaps more important to reconsider how we become unknowing perpetuators of hate speech.
We can reverse the cycle of hate simply by walking on by.
Want to join the conversation? Send an email to opiniondesk.statepress@gmail.com. Keep letters under 300 words and be sure to include your university affiliation. Anonymity will not be granted.
