I am not suggesting this is a good idea or that I wouldn’t oppose the idea of bringing back slavery, so don’t flame on. This is just a hypothetical free speech question. I say that I could write a book, or publish a web page, form an association, etc., promoting legalizing slavery again. A friend of mine claims that it would be a hate crime to do so. I said nothing would be illegal, unless you set out to try to enslave people.
Hate crimes generally tend to be invoked generally where race (or sexual orientation, though I don’t imagine that’d really be germane to the OP) so practically speaking it matters how you’d be advocating implementing the slavery.
But I think that, in the abstract, you’d be more correct than your friend. What you are “proposing” could and would, by most people as hate speech, not a hate crime. There is a difference–at least IMO, IANAL.
In the US, it would absolutely be protected. Ask your friend to identify the law it would break. Sounds like your friend isn’t clear on what a hate crime is–although I’m having trouble giving a one-sentence explanation, myself.
Advocating a change to the law, no matter how pernicious a change to the law, is never illegal. Advocating an illegal act (e.g., enslaving people illegally) can be illegal.
Hate crime is just that - a crime commited on the basis of prejudice or hatred of a defined subsection of the population. If you beat a guy because you hate him, for whatever reason, that’s not a hate crime. If you beat him because he’s black, or gay, or called Norman, it is.
Hate speech is speech that either condones or encourages the commission of hate crime. As long as your slavery proposition isn’t based on hate or bias against a given subset of the population, nor proposing it should be done before the amended law is passed, you’re good to go.
Yeah–the distinction I was having trouble expressing eloquently is that a hate crime must piggyback on another crime. If spraying you with a garden hose isn’t a crime, then spraying you with a garden hose because you’re Jewish isn’t a hate crime.
Hate speech is not illegal per se (although it may be illegal for other reasons–“There’s a fire in this theater, faggots!” would constitute criminal hate speech). I am free to say, “Redheaded atheists are lowly scum, and laws should be passed allowing their enslavement,” without violating any law.
I am NOT free to say, “Go out and enslave your neighbors, my brethren, do it NOW!” That’s inciting criminal activity, even if it’s not motivated by hatred for a subset of the population.
Of course it’d be protected- it’s political speech advocating a change in law. That’s not illegal, and is in fact the sort of thing the First Amendment is supposed to protect.
Heck, just write it as fiction. The U.S. in 2050 is a peaceful and wealthy utopia, once the darkies were put back in their place in the Second Civil War of 2036, or something.