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Full-Text Articles in Law

Genetic Race? Dna Ancestry Tests, Racial Identity, And The Law, Trina Jones, Jessica L. Roberts Jan 2020

Genetic Race? Dna Ancestry Tests, Racial Identity, And The Law, Trina Jones, Jessica L. Roberts

Faculty Scholarship

Can genetic tests determine race? Americans are fascinated with DNA ancestry testing services like 23andMe and AncestryDNA. Indeed, in recent years, some people have changed their racial identity based upon DNA ancestry tests and have sought to use test results in lawsuits and for other strategic purposes. Courts may be similarly tempted to use genetic ancestry in determining race. In this Essay, we examine the ways in which DNA ancestry tests may affect contemporary understandings of racial identity. We argue that these tests are poor proxies for race because they fail to reflect the social, cultural, relational, and experiential norms …


Unlearning Fear Out-Group Others, Terry A. Maroney Apr 2009

Unlearning Fear Out-Group Others, Terry A. Maroney

Law and Contemporary Problems

Maroney describes a neuroscientific fear-extinction study as preliminary evidence supporting the notion that out-group hostilities might be influenced by biological predispositions. In the fear-extinction study, subjects were conditioned to fear the presentation of black or white faces with the introduction of an electric shock when such faces appeared on a screen. Then the experimenters stopped using the shock when that race's faces appeared on the screen. Subjects' fear was extinguished much more effectively when the subject was conditioned to fear faces of individuals of her own race than when the subject was conditioned to fear faces of individuals of another …


The Bfoq Defense: Title Vii’S Concession To Gender Discrimination, Katie Manley Jan 2009

The Bfoq Defense: Title Vii’S Concession To Gender Discrimination, Katie Manley

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

Should the BFOQ exception still exist? Because permitting discrimination under Title VII seems fundamentally contrary to the anti-discrimination purpose of the statute, this article questions whether the BFOQ defense is consistent with the aims of Title VII or whether, in actuality, the defense undermines the Act's effectiveness by providing a loophole for employers to participate in the discriminatory practices Title VII seeks to forbid.


“But Some Of [Them] Are Brave”: Identity Performance, The Military, And The Dangers Of An Integration Success Story, Mario L. Barnes May 2007

“But Some Of [Them] Are Brave”: Identity Performance, The Military, And The Dangers Of An Integration Success Story, Mario L. Barnes

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

By dislodging the story and acknowledging the effects of unconscious bias, the Armed Forces will be better able to address the ways in which some use identity-race in particular-as a tool to stigmatize, dishonor, and disfavor group members based on their perceived characteristics.11 As it currently stands, the operation of unconscious biases interacts with Armed Forces' institutional policy choices-such as a commitment to formal equality achieved through race- and gender-neutral regulations-and organizational social norms to negatively shape the work "performance"12 of women and minority service members.


Some Modest Proposals For Challenging Established Dress Code Jurisprudence, Jennifer Levi Jan 2007

Some Modest Proposals For Challenging Established Dress Code Jurisprudence, Jennifer Levi

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

Two well-established exceptions to the rule exist for dress codes that either (1) objectify or sexualize women1 or (2) allow for flexibility of standards for male employees' appearance but require stricter rules for women.2 A third, still-evolving exception has recently developed regarding challenges to dress codes by transgender litigants.3 Despite this recent progress, however, the classical gender-based dress code-requiring women to conform to feminine stereotypes and men to conform to masculine stereotypes-has, up to the present, been sustained by a majority of the courts time and again.4 It is, therefore, fortitious that two cases now offer insights as to why …


An Essay For Keisha (And A Response To Professor Ford), Barbara J. Flagg Jan 2007

An Essay For Keisha (And A Response To Professor Ford), Barbara J. Flagg

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

In chapter 3 I build on this conclusion and argue that political solidarity based on a common relationship to oppression and domination is the appropriate focus of (racial) identity politics and legal rights assertion; by contrast cultural claims are more contestable on both descriptive and normative terms and should be left to more fluid domains of conflict resolution such as social dialogue, the democratic process and the market economy . . . . With respect to the "foreseeable effects" model, the 1995 test for the first prong, the existence of a foreseeable impact, clearly encompasses more than cultural difference.94 In …


Gender Performance Over Job Performance: Body Art Work Rules And The Continuing Subordination Of The Feminine, Lucille M. Ponte, Jennifer L. Gillan Jan 2007

Gender Performance Over Job Performance: Body Art Work Rules And The Continuing Subordination Of The Feminine, Lucille M. Ponte, Jennifer L. Gillan

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.


The Hair Dilemma: Conform To Mainstream Expectations Or Emphasize Racial Identity, Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, Tracy L. Dumas Jan 2007

The Hair Dilemma: Conform To Mainstream Expectations Or Emphasize Racial Identity, Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, Tracy L. Dumas

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

Throughout American history, skin color, eye color, and hair texture have had the power to shape the quality of Black people's lives, and that trend continues today for Black women in the workplace.


Korematsu And Beyond: Japanese Americans And The Origins Of Strict Scrutiny, Greg Robinson, Toni Robinson Apr 2005

Korematsu And Beyond: Japanese Americans And The Origins Of Strict Scrutiny, Greg Robinson, Toni Robinson

Law and Contemporary Problems

The authors examine the role that the Japanese American Citizens League played in the development of the "strict scrutiny" doctrine partly responsible for the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The plight of Japanese Americans during their WWII internment gave them experience in implementing this doctrine, which they passed on to the NAACP.


Racial Auditors And The Fourth Amendment: Data With The Power To Inspire Political Action, Andrew E. Taslitz Jul 2003

Racial Auditors And The Fourth Amendment: Data With The Power To Inspire Political Action, Andrew E. Taslitz

Law and Contemporary Problems

Taslitz discusses the current practice of racial auditing as a method of police regulation. Racial auditing relies on the strategy of using independent investigators to disseminate data about an organization to broader publics. Racial auditors, however, are not accountants but rather human rights organizations.


Race, Crime, And Institutional Design, Erik Luna Jul 2003

Race, Crime, And Institutional Design, Erik Luna

Law and Contemporary Problems

Minorities are gravely overrepresented in every stage of the criminal process--from pedestrian and automobile stops, to searches and seizures, to arrests and convictions, to incarceration and capital punishment. While racial data can provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs, such information rarely satisfies questions of causation, and usually only sets the scene for normative theory.


A Black Party? Timmons, Black Backlash And The Endangered Two-Party Paradigm, Terry Smith Oct 1998

A Black Party? Timmons, Black Backlash And The Endangered Two-Party Paradigm, Terry Smith

Duke Law Journal

In a pair of 1997 electoral decisions, the Supreme Court decided that Minnesota could prohibit fusion candidacies in the interest of maintaining a strong two-party system, but that Georgia could not create two new majority-minority congressional districts because the redistricting process had been impermissibly infected by race. In this Article, Professor Smith argues that these two decisions unavoidably conflict. While the fusion case reaffirmed the states' interest in maintaining a strong two-party system, the racial gerrymandering case severely undercut the states' ability to achieve this interest in jurisdictions where the major parties are racially stratified. He demonstrates that blacks operating …