In Defense Of Prejudice: A Critique

Rauch has stated many times in his essay that his intentions of protecting incendiary speech are noble; the purpose of protecting prejudiced ideas is to foment intellectual pluralism in society.Through a free means of expression, through the discussion and debate of ideas, prejudiced and bigoted thought will be marginalized and sidelined. By letting racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., beexpressed freely and confronting these with rational thought the reach of these ideas will be diminished and although they will not be completely eradicated their number of adherents will be so small thatthey will be a negligible voice in a progressive society. However, no matter well intentioned Rauch's plans are I believe they are wrong, prejudiced ideas are irrational in their essence and cannotlend themselves to debate, the idea that there is a tribal aspect to "human nature" is flawed, and if prejudiced thought is allowed to be expressed freely it will multiply, no matter how many argumentsare presented discrediting such notions.
There are many types of prejudiced thought, each with its own history, aspects, and belief systems. That is why I have chosen to focus particularly onracial prejudice. Since racism is a social construct it is important to divide it in to its components which are ethnic and cultural prejudices and include them in our discussion.
First, let usexamine one of Rauch's main arguments a little deeper, that serves as the basis for the rest of his subsequent arguments: human beings are tribalistic in nature, in other words they will identify withother individuals of similar beliefs and characteristics. Rauch adds that human beings not only have a tendency to form tribes or groups, but that they naturally pit themselves against one another; thatthe concept of "us vs. them" is engrained in to the very fabric of what it means to be human. In essence it is human nature to hold others in ill regard. To examine this question further we must...