Words That Wound

In this book, four prominent legal scholars from the tradition of critical race theory draw on the experience of injury from racist hate speech to develop a First Amendment interpretation that recognizes such injuries.

The authors critique 'first amendment orthodoxy' and argue that only a history of racism can explain why defamation, invasion of privacy, and fraud are exempt from free-speech guarantees while racist and sexist verbal assaults are not.

The book demonstrates how critical race theory can be used to motivate a responsible regulation of hate speech, also incorporating insights from feminist theory.