Speaking back : Does counterspeech provide adequate redress for racial vilification?

Speaking back is sometimes presented as an appropriate response by the state to hate speech. This article examines two versions of this argument. Although speaking back may be appropriate and useful in certain circumstances, by itself it does not provide adequate redress to targets of vilification. This article contends that pt IIA of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) provides a form of legal protection and corrective justice that speaking back cannot provide. Unlike speaking back, these provisions operate to protect the dignity and wellbeing of members of groups targeted by racial vilification, and to authoritatively affirm that public acts of racial vilification are not acceptable in Australian society.