Online freedom of speech???

The question is this: Are online spaces appropriate sites for discussing troubling race and other such controversial topics?

In my opinion there are pros and cons to this answer.  I feel like posts/replies and other discussions about controversial and sensitive topics displayed online is just another way for people to express themselves and utilize their freedom of speech rights.  For one expressing yourself online gives you time to really think and reflect on what you want to post about a certain topic.  It allows you the time needed to decide and debate on how you feel as a person on a subject as oppose to having to come up with an almost instant answer or response like you would if you normally would had you been in person.  It also creates some safety for you.  Communicating opinions about highly emotional topics online takes away that face to face element which obviously includes the emotional aspect of debates which can often times become hostile.  Online you may create an argument or a hostile backlash but because it's online there is no physical threat.  
Discussions about such topics online though can be very impersonal and dialogue online is often times taken out of context.  This is a main problem of having these kinds of discussions online.  A reader may take your opinion of a certain topic in a way that is meant to come off totally opposite, but because all it is is words online its hard to interpret the authors tone and sincerity.  This can cause hostility and ultimately misunderstanding by both parties, and the point of the topic to begin with will be lost in translation.