In Free Speech Debates, LGBTQ and People Of Color At Risk

Commencement speakers and visiting lecturers are feeling the heat from the free speech debates raging on college campuses across the country.

Both conservative and liberal speakers feel caught in the cross-hairs, though columnist Steven Thrasher from The Guardian argues that those most likely to experience real threats are the speakers who are neither white nor male.

"There's a much higher price being paid from people who are not white men just to be able to speak in the first place," Thrasher told WNYC host Jami Floyd.

Last week, Princeton professor and public intellectual Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor cancelled speeches in Seattle and San Diego after receiving death threats and violent emails. She says her safety was compromised after Fox News critiqued Taylor's commencement speech at Hampshire College, calling it an "anti-POTUS tirade." Some of the backlash that Taylor received included threats of lynching and sexual violence.

“I am canceling my appearances for fear of my safety and my family’s safety," Taylor wrote in a statement posted on Facebook.

“[We have to] build a massive movement against racism, sexism, and bigotry in this country. I remain undaunted in my commitment to that project,” she wrote.

A study commissioned by The Guardian last year showed that women and people of color receive the vast majority of violent threats in response to speaking out. After analyzing 70 million comments on articles published by The Guardian since 2006, the report shows that "of the 10 most abused writers, eight are women, and the two men are black."

One of those writers is Steven Thrasher, a columnist for The Guardian whose most recent piece discusses free speech and the lack of access experienced by queer and trans people, women, and people of color.