In recent protests at Dickinson, some (but not all) people have called for a removal of Yik Yak. Others have called the banning of Yik Yak an impediment to freedom of speech. I instead suggest that the answer is not as simple as either side argues.

The least compelling pro-Yak argument is the free speech one. Yes, it is true that the constitution has freedom of speech. But at the same time, it does not protect someone from being scolded for hateful speech. A landmark Supreme Court decision, Brandenburg v. Ohio, ruled in favor of a Ku Klux Klan leader who promoted hateful speech. But that case, and other similar cases, do not and should not prevent people from scolding a group like the KKK for its promotion of hatred. Likewise, while Yik Yak might be a form of free expression, the posters who make hurtful comments against minorities should be scolded because of the comments that have been made.

While the posters of awful Yik Yak comments should be scolded, they can’t be scolded because the posts have been made anonymously. That is what I personally find particularly troubling about this form of social media, and that seems to be a reason why some want to get rid of Yik Yak. This is a very compelling reason to ban Yik Yak.

Yet, at the same time, I fear that banning Yak won’t end racism on this campus but only hide it. In saying this, we should remember that taking away Yik Yak removes one means by which people express their racist thoughts, but it does not eliminate the racist thoughts. It would not eliminate the mindset that led to the poop swastika at the University of Missouri or the defacing of the faces of black professors at Harvard Law School. Taking away Yak may only bring such prejudice into hiding until we see something like a poop swastika in front of our very eyes.

There is another problem with removing Yik Yak: it would take away one of the catalysts for the current movement at Dickinson. Yik Yak is a catalyst for the current movement because it has exposed many people to racism that they were not even aware of in the first place. Such awareness-raising, through the sharing of disgusting Yik Yak comments, has resulted in people identifying with many or all parts of the movement, even though they have never personally experienced racism on this campus. This ability to expose racism in a way that it creates a widespread movement may be greatly reduced if Yik Yak were banned.

But does the awareness-raising of racist Yik Yak posts offset (or more than offset) the damage caused by the hurt of said racist posts? I don’t have the answer to this question, and since I have neither been hurt by the posts nor have seen directly how these posts have turned into a movement, I probably don’t have the authority to answer this question. What I will say is this: the Yik Yak issue is a difficult problem, so difficult that I am ending on the rare note of not providing a substantive solution.