Free speech or fighting words?

IOWA CITY - The hope was for silence. The plan was to heal. The vision was unification.

'But I felt the allies came in and co-opted it,” said University of Iowa student Nailah Roberts about a solidarity protest held last week on the UI campus for Aiyana Stanley-Jones and Eric Garner, both of whom have sparked national protests after being killed by white police officers.

Roberts and some of her peers, who have formed a group called Black Hawkeyes, have said the issue of allies - non-black supporters - overrunning their protests, rallies and events recently has become more pronounced as racial tensions flare nationally and locally.

During last week's solidarity protest, for example, Roberts said some were shouting messages about police militarization.

'They missed the point. It wasn't about that,” she said. 'It was a moment to heal. But we were outnumbered. The allies should have been quiet and given us a chance to heal.”

Participants weighed in on Facebook and Twitter, complaining that white people 'were screaming at the top of their lungs” and interrupting black people.

The next morning, issues of division and speech were amplified when a UI faculty member installed a piece of public art - a likeness of a Ku Klux Klansman, covered in newspaper clippings - in the spot on campus where the protest had been held the night before. The artist, Serhat Tanyolacar, has said the statue was meant to incite discussion and create positive change with racial tensions flaring nationally following the high-profile deaths of Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

But UI officials removed that statue after nearly four hours, saying the artist violated campus policy by not receiving approval. And UI President Sally Mason issued an apology for, among other things, 'failing to meet our goal of providing a respectful, all-inclusive, educational environment.”

That apology, the seven-foot-tall KKK effigy itself and earlier protest concerns about a co-opted message have combined to spark a heated debate on campus not only about race and diversity, but about art and free speech - specifically in a university setting.

‘Exceedingly frustrating'

Some critics of the university's handling of the incident have questioned the need for Mason's apology and the statue's removal, saying the artist intended - and perhaps achieved - a robust discussion about race relations in the community.

'The situation I find exceedingly frustrating,” said Kathleen Richardson, director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Drake University. 'This is a perfect case study of an opportunity for an educational institution to engage the community in a civil discussion about the importance of freedom of expression.”

Too often, Richardson said, university and college campuses shy away from discussions around disturbing and sensitive issues.

'But if we are not going to do that on a college campus, where can we do that?” she said.

Richardson said the university's 'knee jerk” reaction was to censor instead of bring into conversation all the affected and connected parties.

'The idea is that the greater good is served more by a robust conversation than it is by shutting people down,” she said, adding the UI could have kept up the statue and 'worked with the artist to make sure it could be placed in some kind of context.”

As to whether the statue should be excepted from First Amendment protections due to 'fighting words” limitations, David Ryfe, director of the UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said he doesn't think so.

'This wasn't an instance, by any definition, of hate speech,” Ryfe said. 'It was intended as an artistic expression raising issues around the subject.”

Law enforcement can take something down for violating use-of-space policies, as was the case here, Ryfe said. But, he added, institutions largely cannot censor based on content.

'If the university didn't have a policy in place and then took something down because it felt it was inappropriate, that would be a content-based distinction, and you can't do that,” Ryfe said.

‘It was a terrorist attack'

But members of the UI's black community have said they disagree and do think the artwork crossed a line, inducing fear in many cases.

'That incited panic,” said Kayla Wheeler, a third-year doctoral student in the UI Department of Religious Studies. 'It was a terrorist attack. How is that protected speech?”

Richard Legon, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges president, said he's seen plenty of racially fueled protests, gatherings and other forms of expression on college campuses across the country of late.

In most cases, he said, free speech should and does prevail. In some cases, however, institutional heads 'need to make a judgment call about what the potential fallout from those kinds of activities might be.”

'At times, they have to make tough choices,” Legon said.

Following Mason's apology, UI Vice President of Strategic Communication Joseph Brennan told The Gazette that the university has a responsibility to create an inclusive and welcoming environment. If the artist had asked permission to install the statue, Brennan said, 'We would have granted it.”

But, he said, administrators would have worked to minimize the hostility by placing it in context or providing public information, allowing community members the opportunity to decide whether to see it.

'Our system broke down when the artist did not ask permission,” Brennan wrote in an email to The Gazette.

‘Open to the public'

In the Black Hawkeyes's attempts to have their voices heard and control their message, group members said they've become more 'selective” about whom they invite to events.

Earlier this week, in fact, the group organized a town hall gathering at the Iowa City Public Library that it advertised as being closed to white people.

'All members of the black community are asked to attend,” according to an invitation for the Wednesday event, circulated by the UI chapter of the NAACP.

Reporters were told that only black people would be allowed in, and a message on social media Wednesday reiterated that sentiment.

But library officials rebuffed that attempt and told The Gazette that all meetings in the library's meeting room A must be open to the public. Kara Logsden, community and access services coordinator, said that was made clear from the moment the group reserved the room.

'The group was told it had to be open to the public, and when they picked up the key for the meeting they were told again,” Logsden said.

After learning the group tried to close the event to a specific group of people, she said, library staff had a conversation with meeting organizers.

'I do believe there is a better understanding from their group now about what the rules are,” Logsden said.

When asked about the closure, UI student Yasmin Elgaali said in a statement that 'we did request on social media that only black people attend.” But, she noted, 'We did not turn anyone away.”

'We were told the day of the event that we were required to open the room to the public, and we complied with that request,” Elgaali said.

She disputed the library's assertions that it told organizers early on about the public requirements.

'If that was the case, we would have had the meetings elsewhere,” she said.