Personally I don't think there is anything to solve. Racist speech should not be punished by the government.
Why not?
Wow
Please sit this out, at the very least until I can get an answer to my question and I can rebut before you freak out about nothing. Thanks.
Because I believe that freedom of speech is the cornerstone of a free society. Yes, there are some pretty specific limitations mostly dealing with breaking the law. I understand that you want to file racism in that category as well but it comes dangerously close to thought crime and that's just not something I can support.
If a person is being threatening or harrasing, that's a different discussion.
I feel like your last sentence is trying to have your cake and eat it too. We rightly have a very broad definition of what's considered gender based harassment, why is it okay to narrow that definition for race? A large part of the reasoning for broadening of the definition of sexual harassment was because it was thought that women weren't being allowed to work and study in environments that weren't openly hostile. What I'm hearing when someone uses the term like "thought crime" is that I don't have the right to walk into my place of work without seeing KKK posters, because your right to put those posters up where I can see them everyday, is more important. Also you're allowing the potential harasser to dictate what they view as harassment. Let's say I walk out of Kedzie Hall and skinhead, ss arm bands, iron cross tattoos, and all walks up to me and says "hey spook, I know who you are and you better watch yourself." Harassment or not? By your definition, it isn't, there was no implied threat. What do you think happens to the university if I report this, they tell me they can't take action because there was no direct or implied threat, then I get either hurt or killed by a skinhead?
As for this specific case, you're getting hung up on the one tweet instead of the history of what this student has done and the environment he's created that led to another student getting a picture of her face in a noose sent to her. He has a documented history of encouraging others to harass other students.