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Selected Works

2011

Equal Protection Clause

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Harvesting New Conceptions Of Equality: Opportunity, Results, And Neutrality, Cedric M. Powell Oct 2011

Harvesting New Conceptions Of Equality: Opportunity, Results, And Neutrality, Cedric M. Powell

Cedric M. Powell

This is a critical period in the Court’s history; there is a doctrinal shift from the Rehnquist Court’s colorblind constitutionalism to the Roberts Court’s post-racial universalism. The Fourteenth Amendment and Title VII have been inverted: under the Fourteenth Amendment, whites are the new discrete and insular minority to be protected from a result-oriented “racial” process; and, under Title VII, disparate impact is irrelevant in the absence of a “strong basis in evidence” to believe that there will be liability. In a very direct way, the Court’s race jurisprudence privileges reverse discrimination suits. To advance the critique of the Court’s doctrinal …

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Biological Metaphors For Whiteness: Beyond Merit And Malice, Brant T. Lee Jan 2011

Biological Metaphors For Whiteness: Beyond Merit And Malice, Brant T. Lee

Brant T. Lee

The problem of persistent racial inequality is grounded in a failure of imagination. The general mainstream conception is that unfair racial inequality occurs only when there is intentional racism. Absent conscious racial malice, no racism is seen to exist. The only generally available alternative explanation for racial inequality is the meritocratic system. Viewing the distribution of resources as a product of a generally fair meritocratic system provides a defense against any charge of racism, and justifies the status quo.

But in economics, business, computer science, and even biology, observers of complexity are coming to understand how dominant systems can prevail …

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