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In the Supreme Court case Whitney v. People of State of California

(1927), the Supreme Court judges upheld Charlotte Whitney’s case under the grounds of freedom of speech. The Supreme Court stated that “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” This quote brings me to the topic of my project: the erosion of free speech on college campuses. My general goals are to interview college students in University City about their thoughts on free speech, hate speech, and dissenting views on college campuses.

I am interested in this topic because I, like most anyone in the world, have some unpopular opinions. It is concerning, to say the least, that colleges and college students are so intolerant to those views that there are riots and cancellations when people come to speak. I want to spread the message that words are not violence, therefore should not be retaliated with violence.

The Brookings Institute gathered data from college campuses and it isn’t surprising what they found, but it was still disturbing. According to the Brookings Institute, 41% of Democrats thought that hate speech was NOT protected by the 1st Amendment, even though it is. Another 15% of Democrats don’t know whether it is or whether it isn’t. That 56% of Democrats being misinformed is what I want to help change. I want to inform people on what their rights are and what is and what isn’t protected speech.

A story I would like to share exposes how far this has gone. At Evergreen State College in Washington last year, the administration asked white people to leave the campus. Biology Professor Bret Weinstein objected to an involuntary “Day of Absence” because he felt it was racist and inflicted on his freedom of speech. He said, “On a college campus, one’s right to speak - or to be - must never be based on skin color.” Professor Weinstein was met with 50 students yelling over him, asking him to resign, calling him racist, and even a Nazi. The students blocked him when he tried to leave and blocked the entrances to the college president’s office with furniture. This story and Professor Weinstein’s interviews led me to look into the statistics and other research about student intolerance.

My research has quantified what I already knew. I knew people were uninformed about the 1st Amendment, but the research has made it evident. I hope to learn more about ways to increase tolerance and nonviolence.

Working Annotated Bibliography

​For my art pieces this quarter I felt very inspired to use paint as my main art material. I found that when painting I felt very calm. Holding a paintbrush and using my imagination to create art pieces felt very therapeutic for some reason.

When I started my first pieces which was the contour drawing I found it challenging since I couldn't see what I was doing, I kept trying to look but in the end I came out with very unique drawings. Then, coloring them in was also a challenge. It turned out to look completely opposite of what it was originally supposed to be, but I think that’s the beauty of art. You can draw or paint anything and it will still be right because it’s something you created out of your imagination.

Then we went on to our own choice of painting, it was around the time of holidays and I was in the christmas spirit so I decided to paint classical images you would see around the holidays, a snowman and holiday lights. I loved creating and painting these pieces. Afterwards we had to recreate a painting and I instantly knew I wanted to create a Picasso. He is one of my favorite artist for so many reasons. His artis inspiring and I find his blue era inspiring, so I decided to recreate a painting from that era. When creating this piece I learned how important it was to mix colors and blend. In the original price some areas were a lighter blue than other areas so I had to mix in some white in order to get in just right.

Afterwards, we had to illustrate a piece of writing. I knew right away what I wanted to do. I chose a J-cole song called “A Tale of Two Cities” on the song he talks about police-brutality and everything a black man has to go through. He talks about black injustice. I decided to recreate this song by illustrating one of his lines “hands in the air run it” and then “Forgive me father for I have sinned” by painting a man pointing a gun at someone else and saying the line and then above two hands praying with the lyrics next to it. In between of the two grains you can see golden bricks and this image represent the line “I know that everything that glitter ain't gold.” The bricks may be painted gold that doesn’t mean they are valuable. This was one of my favorite drawings. Lastly we had to take pictures and then edit them to show depth. I took three pictures that showed depth then edited them and highlighted and used contrast to further emphasize the depth of the pictures.