Freedom of speech, imagination, and political dissent: Culturally centering the free speech principle (Alice Randall)

This dissertation is a response to the exigent problem of the clash between racist speech and the First Amendment. Looking at the ways in which traditional justifications for free speech actually silence historically marginalized and oppressed groups of people provides a better understanding of why hate speech is often legitimated within legal theory and practice. This project is guided by the following questions: How ought we think of free speech within the context of a racist culture? How can we theorize a free speech principle that would promote political dissent, but that would also allow for the regulation of particularly heinous forms of hate speech?; This question is answered by a rhetorical analysis of the case over Alice Randall's controversial parody, The Wind Done Gone, which critiques the racist depiction of blacks in Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. The discourse in the temporary restraining order against her book in April 2001 as well as the discourse surrounding the controversy illustrates how legal theory and practice often work to silence marginalized voices of dissent and to protect the status quo of white supremacy.; The argument throughout this text is grounded within the theoretical foundations of Critical Race Theory and assumes a constitutive nature of communication. Specifically, this dissertation is concerned with the political function of communication, and, importantly, how speech constructs culture, having the possibility of maintaining unjust social hierarchies, or promoting democratic ideals. The controversy over The Wind Done Gone provides valuable insight into how historically oppressed groups, through dissent, can challenge racist speech circulating in society and transform racist social structures. A new free speech principle, conceptualized in this dissertation, accounts for the fundamentally constitutive nature of communication and answers the problem hate speech poses to the principle of free speech.