Let America Be America Again

On my new role defending freedom of speech

In his 1935 poem “Let America Be America Again,” Langston Hughes beautifully expresses the hope that one day the American dream will become reality for the nation’s working class and immigrant communities.

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

Bitterly, Hughes adds, “America never was America to me.” Naturally, he means not merely the plight of the poor but the struggle of black folk in America. After all, he was writing only four years after the Scottsboro Boys case and within weeks of the Harlem race riot.

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

But our politics have evolved. The illiberal force in our cultural landscape now comes from the left and trains itself not on racial or religious minorities but political dissent. We in America have grown accustomed to Stalinist cancel culture, Maoist struggle sessions, and 32 flavors of Marxism telling us what to think about race, sex, gender, history, biology, even math. We are a nation of immigrants whose ancestors touched upon these shores seeking freedom, and we have a duty to carry the torch.

I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

In case you happen to think, as many curiously do, that free speech is not in fact in any mortal danger, allow me to take you on a brief tour:

• U.S. vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has claimed, apparently blanking on the existence of the First Amendment, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech and especially around our democracy.”

• Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has called on regulators worldwide to “threaten Musk with arrest” unless he censors lies and hate on X.

• Brazil has banned X and if any of its 22 million X users log in using a VPN, they face fines of $8,900 per day. The average annual salary in Brazil is $1,848.

“This is the latest reminder that you don’t need to agree with Musk on much to be grateful that maybe the most important speech platform in the world is in the hands of a free-speech absolutist—and the rare billionaire willing to use his fuck-you money,” writes

Oliver Wiseman

.

But of course, this goes well beyond the speech policies of X.

• The 2024 Global Expression Report notes a growing number of U.S. states are requiring social media companies to moderate content or face penalties.

• In Britain, free speech no longer exists. Once the proud homeland of Churchill and Orwell, the UK is now home to Orwellian anti-free speech laws and “non-crime hate incidents.” The new Labour government plans to target anyone it considers to be promoting “harmful or hateful beliefs” and is considering classifying sexist remarks as “extremism.” Some have even been fined for thinking in the wrong place—for more, see my essay “London Has Fallen.”

• In France, officials have arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and prosecutors are seeking to hold him criminally responsible for what is said on his platform.

• In Germany, the Network Enforcement Act requires social media companies to remove hate speech within tight deadlines.

• In India, the BJP government has suppressed dissent, particularly through the misuse of laws like the sedition law and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which has resulted in the arrest of journalists and activists in Kashmir.

Free speech has always been a central theme in my career. As a former university lecturer of writing, logic, debate, and public speaking, no subject was off limits in my classroom. Ideas were rejected only if and when they lost in intellectual contest.

When I became a journalist, free speech remained a central theme in my work, largely because I began my career in journalism covering China and the Koreas. Even when I pivoted to covering genocidal violence in Ethiopia, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or the Hamas attack on Israel, free speech remained a constant theme.

I’ve had stories censored because they were critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Or because they covered taboo topics such as concentration camps in Xinjiang. I’ve gotten into trouble with bosses for insisting we stick to the truth no matter how politically incorrect. I had my own cancel culture experience after I argued on X that Vladimir Lenin was more demented than Adolf Hitler, which happens to be a fact.

In short, freedom of speech has been a running theme throughout my career, but one that has crystalized in a personal way ever since my return to the States. That’s why I’ve decided to join the fight in its defense by joining the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the nation’s premier free speech group.

FIRE is a non-profit group founded in 1999 to protect freedom of speech on college campuses in the United States. In 2022, FIRE broadened its focus from colleges to freedom of speech throughout American society.

I will be working as a senior writer and editor at FIRE, arguing in favor of our most sacred and inalienable right. As such, The Radicalist will likely adopt an increased focus on this crucial subject, which I trust my readers will welcome. To celebrate, here’s a review of some of my favorite free speech essays:

• Fire in the Belly: A Defense of Free Speech

• London Has Fallen - The dismal state of affairs in the UK

• The Best Test of Truth - The birth of the ACLU and the limits of free speech

• Britain and the Heretics in the Truth - The erosion of free speech in the UK

• Interview with FIRE’s Nico Perrino

• Interview with playwright CJ Hopkins

• My Family Was Hunted by Nazis. But I Was Fired For ‘Defending Hitler.’