In the rising culture of hate, it is easy to find the prevalent presence of hostile words – words that are meant to demean, malign, and belittle entire groups of people based on their fundamental characteristics or associations – in almost every corner of our daily lives. In the face of such toxic public discourse, it may be tempting to close our eyes and ears and become indifferent to wounding words. The conference is a critical inquiry into the notion of racial group vilification and its legal/constitutional dilemma vis-à-vis freedom of expression. In particular, the presentation seeks to underline the danger in overlooking the harm in such type of utterances by focusing on the harm in racially charged speech from the victim’s position and what we, as a collective and polyglot community, can learn from the Keegstra case.
