All posts by Dr. Carlos E. Cortés

Carlos E. Cortés is a retired history professor who has been a diversity speaker, educator, trainer, and consultant for forty-five years. His books include: The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity (2000); his memoir, Rose Hill: An Intermarriage before Its Time (2012); and a book of poetry, Fourth Quarter: Reflections of a Cranky Old Man (2016), which received honorable mention for the best book of poetry in the 2017 International Latino Book Awards. He also edited the four-volume Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia (2013).

Authors A-H, Education

Diversity & Speech Part 13: Education and Equity – by Carlos E. Cortés

September 5, 2020 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Leave a comment

Education, particularly higher education, has become ground zero for the clash of inclusive diversity and robust speech. Many administrators and professors proclaim their support of both. So do I. Yes, they can co-exist. But there will be clashes, inevitably. Which means decisions, tough decisions, will have to be made.

In the wake of the Memorial Day police killing of George Floyd, those decisions became more complex and more contentious. College leaders throughout the country proclaimed their horror about that Minneapolis event and vowed that their campuses would not only continue to support diversity, equity, and inclusion, but would also assert leadership in anti-racism.

Such anti-racist proclamations are needed. But what does that mean when it comes to action? What should college leaders do if members of their campus communities use their robust speech to express anti-equity ideas, particularly ones that are deemed to be racist?

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2020, Authors A-H

Diversity and Speech Part 11: Dehumanizing Speech 2070 – by Carlos E. Cortés

April 1, 2020 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Leave a comment

This is my final (for now) of three columns offering fifty-year projections concerning the following question: as a nation, where will we stand in 2070 when it comes to the contested interplay of diversity and speech? These three columns are based on a December, 2019, public presentation on diversity and speech that I gave at the Speculative Futures in Education Conference at the University of California, Riverside. In my previous two columns I argued that, during the next fifty years, there are likely to be significant changes in the legal framework for dealing with Hate speech and Harmful speech.

First, Hate. In the past decade the internet has dramatically altered the hate speech conversation. As an easily-accessible mechanism for spreading hate and precipitating action, the internet has developed into a true weapon of terror. First Amendment absolutists repeatedly proclaim that the best way to fight hate is simply through “more speech.” However, “more speech” has proven to be decidedly ineffective in combating the internet hate speech avalanche, including troll storms and doxing. For that reason, I predict that the necessity of curbing hate-speech-fueled violence, particularly against marginalized people, will ultimately drive government to restricting at least some forms of hate speech by 2070.

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Authors A-H, Teams & Leaders

Diversity and Speech Part 10: Harmful Speech 2070 – by Carlos E. Cortés

February 5, 2020 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Leave a comment

This is the second of three columns in which I make fifty-year projections concerning the following question: as a nation, where will we stand in 2070 when it comes to the contested interplay of diversity and speech? These three columns are based on a public presentation on diversity and speech that I gave at the December, 2019, Speculative Futures in Education Conference at the University of California, Riverside.

In my previous column I argued that the internet has dramatically altered the diversity-speech discussion, particularly when it comes to hate speech. As an easily-accessible mechanism for spreading hate, including through troll storms and doxing, the internet has developed into a true weapon of terror.

Continue reading Diversity and Speech Part 10: Harmful Speech 2070 – by Carlos E. Cortés →

Authors A-H, Teams & Leaders

Diversity and Speech Part 8: Managing Diversity – by Carlos E. Cortés

December 9, 2019 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Leave a comment

This is the eighth in a series of columns based on my research as a former fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. In these columns I have discussed what I call the diversity movement — the composite of individual, group, and organizational efforts to reduce societal inequities that penalize people because of their actual or perceived membership in certain social groups. In particular I have focused on the intersection of diversity and speech.

After analyzing the past half century of the diversity movement, I concluded that the movement actually consists of four separate but intersecting diversity strands: intercultural; equity and inclusion; critical theory; and managing diversity. My past columns have sketched the parameters of the first three strands. In this column I will focus on the fourth strand, managing diversity.

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Authors A-H, Inclusion

Diversity and Speech Part 7: Critical Theory – by Carlos E. Cortés

November 5, 2019 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Leave a comment

This is the seventh in a series of columns based on my research as a former fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. In these columns I have discussed what I call the diversity movement — the composite of the myriad individual, group, and organizational efforts to reduce societal inequities that penalize people because of their actual or perceived membership in certain social groups. In particular I have focused on the various issues raised concerning language and the exercise of speech.

In the past two columns I compared two threads of that diversity movement: intercultural diversity and equity-and-inclusion diversity. For the most part interculturalists emphasize voluntary speech restraint through the development of intergroup understanding. In contrast, while they often draw upon interculturalist principles, some inclusionists are more willing to pursue direct speech restraints, such as through regulations. When it comes to the third strand of the diversity movement, critical theory, its advocates tend to take an even stronger position in support of the direct restraint of speech, including through laws and codes.

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Authors A-H, Inclusion

Diversity & Speech Part 6: Equity and Inclusion – by Carlos E. Cortés

October 13, 2019 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés 1 Comment

This is the sixth in a series of columns based on my research as a former fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. In earlier columns I argued that our nation’s system of expression is far too complex to be encompassed by the simple, misleading couplet, “free speech.” In fact, over more than two centuries, our nation has developed a complex constitutionally-based system that combines robust legally-protected speech with selective legal limitations on speech.

Therefore, diversity advocates should not be drawn into the position of opposing free speech. They don’t need to, because it does not actually exist. Instead they should defend the basic societal value of robust speech, while also reframing the discussion by clarifying the tensions that inevitably arise when the valuable imperatives of diversity and speech intersect. Simultaneously they should function within the American historical tradition by proposing carefully focused additions to the current list of legal limitations.

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Authors A-H, Culture

Diversity and Speech Part 5: Interculturalism – by Carlos E. Cortés

August 29, 2019 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Leave a comment

The diversity movement has raised myriad issues regarding language and the exercise of speech. Indeed, some critics of diversity efforts have accused its advocates of undermining the U.S. tradition of free speech. Yet that argument is ill-founded, for two reasons. First, because totally “free” speech does not exist in the United States. Second, because establishing selective legal limits on speech is as historically American as apple pie.

This is the fifth in a series of columns based on my research as a past fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. In earlier columns I argued that diversity advocates should not be drawn into the position of opposing free speech, because it does not really exist. Rather they should clarify and reframe the issue.

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Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

Diversity and Speech Part 4: Navigating the N-Word – by Carlos E. Cortés

May 11, 2019 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Leave a comment

Leelee Jackson and Geoffrey Stone are hardly household names in diversity circles. But in 2019, my interactions with Jackson, a talented young playwright, and Stone, a passionate defender of free speech, helped illuminate the challenging complexities of diversity and expression.

As a fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, I have been examining the myriad tensions created when two laudable principles collide: the defense of robust speech and the effort to create greater inclusivity. This intersection has generated considerable controversy, including among diversity advocates.

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