Is it free speech to call someone a ‘racist’?

After the tragedy in Charlottesville, the Twitter account “Yes, You’re a Racist” blew up with activity.
The account identifies people who took part in the white nationalist demonstration.

“This could be libelous,” KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross wondered. “Who knows what’s really in their hearts?”

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After all, being labeled a racist is like social poison, as James Allsup found out. He resigned his position as president of the College Republicans at Washington State University after it was revealed he attended the Charlottesville demonstration. He initially claimed he was covering the event for his YouTube channel, but it turned out that he was there in a more official capacity than that — he was a speaker.

“Principles of defamation apply here,” said former state Attorney General Rob McKenna. “Let’s say he was just walking by the rally and happened to be photographed and they claimed he was attending it and hanging out with the neo-Nazis. If he can show that those claims are false and knowingly false, he might have a defamation claim.”

“But that doesn’t seem to be the case with (Allsup),” McKenna said. “He went to this rally to speak against the removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue. He ended up being caught up with all the far right people who were there. He did not exit the rally when he realized they were there. So he probably wouldn’t have a successful defamation claim. Absent libel or slander, people have a right to say bad things about you if they disagree with what you are doing, just as you have a right to show up at a rally for a cause you believe in.”

It comes down to free speech from all angles. But there is a concern, McKenna notes, about hampering free speech by throwing around labels.

“Where this becomes troubling, of course, is when any group tags someone with a negative label, like being a racist, because they choose to attend certain events or express certain views,” McKenna said. “So we worry about free speech being chilled by the fear that you will be labeled something very unpleasant.”

“And the right is doing that by referring to people with the counter demonstrators as the ‘radical left,'” he said. “So they are trying to engage in that same kind of labeling activity, that has risks for sure, but it is within their rights to do. The problem they face is a simple political matter – being labeled a racist is a far more toxic matter than being labeled part of the radical left.”

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