Evidencing the harms of hate speech

Authors

Katharine Gelber, University of New South WalesFollow
Luke J. McNamara, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

104770

Publication Details

K. Gelber & L. J. McNamara, Evidencing the harms of hate speech (2016) 22 (3) Social Identities 324-341.

Abstract

The ways in which targeted communities experience hate speech is an important, but often neglected, component of the debate over the legitimacy of hate speech laws. This article reports on data drawn from interviews conducted with 101 members of Indigenous and minority ethnic communities in Australia regarding their experiences of hate speech. We give voice to targets’ experiences of face-to-face and more widely broadcast hate speech, and outline the constitutive and consequential harms they claim to have suffered. We assess these against the alleged harms of hate speech in the literature, finding a close correlation between targets’ reports and the literature.