The idea of “self-censorship” first became prevalent in the Red Scare of the 1950s. Senator Joseph McCarthy initiated large scale investigations across the country searching for “traitors,” people suspected to support communism. These intense examinations spread potent fear across the country, forcing Americans to self-censor their political beliefs out of the fear of communism accusations and thus ostracization. However, this censorship resulted in heavy loss in diversity of political thought, with debate losing the traction it once had.
Self censorship is defined as “the act or action of refraining from expressing something that others could deem objectionable”. Not only has this mindset remained prevalent, it has become apparent within the student body in high schools. Without the exchange of ideas, students lose the opportunity to receive contrasting perspectives and develop a more nuanced understanding of political events. In the end, many students limit their own natural right, freedom of speech, a fundamental aspect of democracy.
Additionally, without the voices of the students who limit their own speech, we are left to hear only the voices of those whose biases only become supplemented and thus more extreme. If others don’t feel comfortable to speak their opinions, only those in support with the “loud” voices will be heard by all, leaving the room with a biased opinion.
Students feel that the fear of social isolation or other social pressures, like friend “groups/cliques” force them to hide their opinions, when in reality it is the sharing of these opinions that create a multifaceted discussion.
I conducted several interviews with anonymous students in AP Government and AP US History, classes that tend to include increased political discussion and debate, and asked them about the level they self-censor their own opinions.
Interview (APUSH Student (1), AP Gov Student (2), AP Gov Student (3)):
Do you find yourself suppressing your opinions in the classroom during discussion?
- Yes, I feel awkward expressing my opinion during discussions.
- Yes, I don’t like to share whatever I am thinking because I feel no place to contribute and feel awkward because I generally never share my opinions with anyone anyway.
- Kind of, I think everyone already has an opinion on my thoughts, so I feel free to say what I want for the most part. But, I still stop myself sometimes because I don’t want people to see me in some wrong way.
What is one main reason that you don’t want to express your opinion?
- Whatever I say will cause the people in the room to change their perception of me. I don’t want to be seen differently because of what I believe.
- I feel kind of embarrassed to share my opinions, I feel like other people will judge and make fun of what I say.
- Pretty much just a fear of being judged, I don’t want my political opinions to outweigh any other aspects of me that people should know too.
Do you find yourself self-censoring around your friends?
- Yes, and while I agree with certain opinions, I worry that they will lose some respect or have a lower opinion of me if I try to debate some of their ideas.
- Honestly yeah, I don’t agree with them a lot but I don’t wanna make it awkward.
- Sometimes, I say what I think but also I feel less knowledgeable sometimes because some people are very confident and research a lot so I don’t like saying much stuff in front of them so I don’t appear stupid, you know?
How do you think diminished voices in the classroom affects overall discussion?
- I find that class discussions can get very biased in our school based on the people in the classroom. A lot of the time, when people share similar opinions, they speak up and support one another. When this occurs, it takes another outspoken person to add a different opinion.
- It kinda makes conversation between a couple people or one sided, but I prefer that over speaking up and being judged.
- It makes the conversation smaller, I feel like conversation could benefit if more people talked?
Do you ever feel like the discussion remains between the same few people?
- Yeah, a lot of the time it is the same people talking, but that is also why the rest of us don’t feel comfortable speaking up, and the people talking tend to have stronger opinions anyways.
- Pretty much, when other people say things, it’s usually just to piggyback off of other people without expressing too much (because the loud opinions tend to be very leaning). I also do this too, though.
- Honestly, sometimes yeah, I wish people would say what they thought more, but I get being scared to speak up because I am too sometimes.
Are there any reasons outside of social reasons that stop you from expressing your opinions?
- I honestly feel not knowledgeable enough to contribute sometimes.
- Not really. I do research stuff, but I just get scared to talk.
- Yeah again, sometimes I’m not fully educated on a topic.
I found that generally at Wheatley, students felt that social pressure stopped them from speaking up, thus limiting the conversation in the classroom. Even those who spoke up felt that conversation was restricted or bound to the few people that did speak up. Despite these discussions and seminars being created to utilize the freedom of speech and democracy to provide new perspectives, it seems that students feel that backlash and negative opinions keep them from expressing their beliefs. Notably, people sometimes perceive themselves to be not educated enough to speak up. However, despite one interviewee educating themselves thoroughly, they still felt they lacked the credibility and voice to speak up and feared judgement. While these discussions may serve as a call for some students to educate themselves outside of class, self-censorship remains mostly due to the polarization of discussion and the fear of judgement. To all students, without this expression of opinions, debate is limited and less people gain a complex understanding of topics from many sides. It limits democracy, and allows people to become more extreme. I encourage you, at Wheatley, to speak up in your next discussion!