Must we defend Nazis?

For many free speech advocates, the answer is not just "yes," but "hell, yes." Nazi ideas are, supposedly, among the most despised ideas in the United States. It's precisely because they are so loathed that Nazis must be vigorously defended, the argument goes. As the executive director of the ACLU said in a recent interview: "If we grant government the ability to deny people protest permits because of what they say or how they say it or what they stand for, that we'll find then that speech in other contexts will be regulated and suppressed."

If Nazis are silenced, other people will be silenced. You need to protect people who hate marginalized people, or marginalized people will be targeted next.

Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic of the University of Alabama School of Law reject this conventional wisdom. The two professors have collaborated on numerous volumes about racism and the law, including "Critical Race Theory: An Introduction" (2012).

In their new book "Must We Defend Nazis?: Why the First Amendment Should Not Protect Hate Speech and White Supremacy," they argue that in fact regulating hate speech would make the United States a fairer, more equal and less hateful place.

"The best way to preserve lizards is not to preserve hawks," they insist in the book. "Our answer to the question, does defending Nazis really strengthen the system of free speech is, then, generally, no. Sometimes defending Nazis is simply defending Nazis."

The ACLU and its many supporters see this as sacrilege. But Delgado and Stefancic make a compelling case.

Delgado and Stefanic argue the price for freedom in this case may be higher than we think.

They point out, in the first place, that hate speech causes real harm. Free speech advocates will sometimes insist that words don't cause damage. They disregard — or even mock — the concerns of students on college campus who protest speeches by controversial figures like Milo Yiannopolous, who has used his speaking engagements to harass trans students, among other marginalized groups. They argue that victims should toughen up and ignore hateful words, or accept them as the price of freedom.

Delgado and Stefanic, though, argue the price for freedom in this case may be higher than we think. For example, a John Hopkins study published in 2013 concluded that being exposed to racism can lead to high blood pressure and stress among African Americans. Similarly, according to research by Claude Steele at Cornell, negative stereotypes affect African-American self-perception, and can lead to lower test scores. More, the rash of recent stories about sexual harassment in the workplace provide stark examples of how hostile words or technically non-violent actions — like men exposing themselves —can create an intolerable environment, forcing women out of industries and leading to long-term stress and trauma.

Free speech advocates also overstate the benefits of free speech, Delgado and Stefanic argue. The ACLU and its adherents claim that marginalized people who ask for restrictions on hate speech don't understand the importance of free speech to civil rights movements. But that argument is paternalistic, and also incorrect.

In reality, free speech rights have rarely protected black people in this country — especially activists of color. "The First Amendment co-existed quite comfortably with slavery for nearly 100 years and was never thought to cover abolitionist speech or speech deemed adverse to American interests," Delgado told me in an email.