According to a long American tradition, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects even so-called “hate speech.” In recent years, many have begun to argue that hate speech should not be protected and, in fact, should be criminalized. What is your view? Should hate speech be protected or criminalized? What are your reasons for this view?

Thesis prompt: According to a long American tradition, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects even so-called “hate speech.” In recent years, many have begun to argue that hate speech should not be protected and, in fact, should be criminalized. What is your view? Should hate speech be protected or criminalized? What are your reasons for this view?
Remember that this is not just a research essay, but an argument essay, so you need to adopt a strong point-of-view. Your thesis should be a claim (pro or con) and your body paragraphs should support that claim in a systematic way. In addition, you must demonstrate some awareness of opposing points-of-view and make some attempt to refute them.
Here is a possible outline for your essay:
Intro and thesis (include some background on the topic)
Overview of the main arguments opposed to your own
Your first refutation
Your second refutation
Your third refutation
An additional argument supporting your position
Conclusion
Keep in mind that a refutation, while it is an attempt to show why an opposing view is wrong or flawed in some way, is also an argument in favor of your position/thesis.
Sources required: You must have at least four sources; of those, at least three should be from the Trident databases, which can be accessed through the Trident Library databases page. To access the databases, click on the Library link at the top of our D2L course main page. On the Library main page, scroll down and look for the “Databases by subject” link. On the databases page you will find a number of options, but for the purposes of this assignment, your best options will be the following databases: 1. Opposing Viewpoints in Context; 2. Points of View Reference Center; 3. Academic Search Premier; 4. JSTOR Arts and Sciences Collection; 5. Ebsco eBook Collection and ProQuest eBook Central. The first four databases consist primarily of articles from newspapers and magazines, previously published, which have been made available for students in colleges and universities. The eBooks databases are simply digitized books. As long as you are using at least three articles (or eBooks) from the Trident databases, you can then use additional sources from elsewhere, including hardcopy periodicals (newspapers, magazines, etc.) or hardcopy books, or internet sources. Internet sources should be solid sources. Avoid .com sites unless they are online journals, magazines, or newspapers. You are welcome to use a blog but it cannot count as one of your four minimum sources (though it should be cited on your Works Cited list, along with all of the sources you have either quoted or closely paraphrased or borrowed facts from).
When you find an article in a database that you think you can use, then you will need to look for the “Citation” icon and look for the MLA citation. Just copy and paste that into your Works Cited list, but once you have done that you will in most cases need to reformat the citation according to the MLA requirements (with proper indents and spacing and so on).

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