“It's going to be a rough ride, buddy!”: An analysis of the collision between “hate speech” and free expression in the Khallid Abdul Muhammad controversy

Abstract

A phenomenological analysis of Kean College students’ responses to excerpts from Khallid Abdul Muhammad's 1993 campus speech, “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews,”; reveals contradictory signification processes for students in terms of race. African American students tend to interpret Muhammad's words in terms of their race's marginalized status in a White society, an interpretation that results in experiencing Muhammad's message as “pro‐Black,”; rather than as racist. Non‐African American students do not make this connection and overwhelmingly interpret Muhammad's words as evidence of his racist attitudes and his role as an unprincipled troublemaker, leading to their support for limits on free expression.

Key words:

• First Amendment rights
• free expression
• hate speech
• Khallid Muhammad
• Nation of Islam
• racism