Hateful Comments

Your organization just partnered with a Black environmental justice organization to produce a survey about Black American’s interest in promoting energy conservation. You make the report accessible on your Internet site along with a comment section. The first comment is a very hateful statement that insults Blacks, saying among other things that they “waste energy with their loud music and cruising up and down the streets.”  What should you do:

1. The comment section must honor free speech; just leave it alone.
2. Delete the comment because it does not follow your unwritten policy of permitting disrespectful comments.
3. Create a written policy about disrespectful comments and monitor comments more closely in the future.
4. Use the comment as an opportunity to examine the underlying factors that can help or hinder collaborative work.

• What are the potential consequences of a disrespectful comment to your partnership with the Black EJ organization and others that read the comment?
• Could no-action by you to the posting be interpreted as tacit approval of the hateful comment?
• Does freedom of speech extend to writing hateful comments?
• Who is usually the subject of hateful comments? How would that influence your perception of freedom of speech?  How does it influence your decision about what to do?