This is perhaps the most illiberal screed I've read in an MSM outlet about the overheated racial debate that's emerged in North America. The reality is that very few Americans or Canadians are inveterate racists. Sure, there are racist rumps in both countries, but placing broad restrictions on free speech to address this problem seems intended not to suppress the views these people espouse (and will continue to do among themselves) but to curb public discussion of contentious and in many cases very important public policy issues. If the author, a well-known academic, doesn't recognize the implicitly anti-democratic implications of his draconian solution,  I fear that where the cause of protecting and promoting democracy is concerned academia has abandoned the project.