Poster warns of free speech risks

The flyers started appearing on campus Wednesday. Chink. Faggot. Kike. Bitch. Nigger. Dothead. Spic. The posters, emblazoned with these epithets, ask students to weigh the importance of First Amendment rights against the impact of racism, sexism and homophobia. "Although we each cherish our First Amendment rights, are we not equally concerned with our human right and that of others to be treated with dignity and respect?" the posters continue. Undergraduate Assembly representative Rashad Ibrahim put up the posters and is founding the Human Rights League to address "an epidemic of racism, homophobia and sexism on the University of Pennsylvania campus." Ibrahim said the group will be a "broad-based coalition of students who feel strongly about the need to build community at Penn." "We intend to address issues ranging from the replacement of the University's speech code with a more workable alternative, to the presence of the ROTC program," the College senior said. His organization is not a direct response to the First Amendment Task Force, he said, but rather a grass-roots effort to "build community." The task force was recently formed by several UA members to address the alleged violation of First Amendment rights at the University. Some UA members have suggested that minority groups feel threatened by the task force. Ibrahim emphasized that he wants the group to be broadly based and include people of all races and sexual orientation. "I hope that persons who are not members of racial or sexual minorities that agree with the philosophy of the group will join and contribute their energy to our objectives," he said. "I'm personally going to make sure WASPs are included." He added that the league is "working against a mindset, not against a group of people." Officially, the league is a UA work group, but Ibrahim said he wants to draw upon the "larger undergraduate population" for the bulk of the group's members.