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Full-Text Articles in Law
"Continually Reminded Of Their Inferior Position": Social Dominance, Implicit Bias, Criminality, And Race, Darren Lenard Hutchinson
"Continually Reminded Of Their Inferior Position": Social Dominance, Implicit Bias, Criminality, And Race, Darren Lenard Hutchinson
UF Law Faculty Publications
This Article contends that implicit bias theory has improved contemporary understanding of the dynamics of individual bias. Implicit bias research has also helped to explain the persistent racial disparities in many areas of public policy, including criminal law and enforcement. Implicit bias theory, however, does not provide the foundation for a comprehensive analysis of racial inequality. Even if implicit racial biases exist pervasively, these biases alone do not explain broad societal tolerance of vast racial inequality. Instead, as social dominance theorists have found, a strong desire among powerful classes to preserve the benefits they receive from stratification leads to collective …
Talking About Race And Equality, Sharon E. Rush
Talking About Race And Equality, Sharon E. Rush
UF Law Faculty Publications
Lots of people of different races are increasingly uncomfortable talking about race. They prefer to function in a colorblind society where they insist that race is irrelevant. Not surprisingly, the concept of racial silencing is consistent with the concept of colorblindness. Logically, it seems impossible to talk about race if we are not even supposed to see it. The idea seems to be that if people who believe in racial equality magically stopped seeing and talking about race they could avoid the negativity surrounding racial issues and just hope that the inequality would fix itself. But we know that if …
The R-Word: A Tribute To Derrick Bell, Kenneth B. Nunn
The R-Word: A Tribute To Derrick Bell, Kenneth B. Nunn
UF Law Faculty Publications
Racism has become the “R-word,” an allegation that is so outrageous that it cannot even be spoken in public, let alone seriously addressed. In this brief exploration, I propose that it is exactly because racism continues to loom large in American society that talking about it has become taboo. In other words, banning the “R-word” serves a political function. It masks the failure of American society to confront the existence of racism and do something about its effects. Derrick Bell's path breaking work can be used to show why the focus of race discourse has moved from debating over what …
William Faulkner, Legal Commentator: Humanity And Endurance In Hollywood's Yoknapatawpha, Michael Allan Wolf
William Faulkner, Legal Commentator: Humanity And Endurance In Hollywood's Yoknapatawpha, Michael Allan Wolf
UF Law Faculty Publications
Two of the several films based on William Faulkner's writings - “Intruder in the Dust” and “Tomorrow” - are sensitive adaptations that are permeated with themes regarding the nature of justice, the role of the attorney, and the place of law and lawlessness in society. In many ways, a careful study of each of these two films (and of the novel and story upon which they are based) reveals that William Faulkner holds a place as an important American legal commentator. No writer (before or since Faulkner) captures so vividly and so truly the moral predicament of an American South …
Diversity As A Dead-End, Kenneth B. Nunn
Diversity As A Dead-End, Kenneth B. Nunn
UF Law Faculty Publications
Supreme Court cases on diversity could only assist if they defined diversity in a way that allowed institutions to admit significant numbers of the type of individuals that the institutions were lacking. This is precisely what the Supreme Court's cases on diversity do not do. Furthermore, the Supreme Court's view of diversity is flawed because it does not address existing power differentials between Blacks and Whites. As a result diversity, as it is defined by the Supreme Court, is a dead-end for those who are concerned about social justice and equity in higher education.
New Explorations In Culture And Crime: Definitions, Theory, Method, Kenneth B. Nunn
New Explorations In Culture And Crime: Definitions, Theory, Method, Kenneth B. Nunn
UF Law Faculty Publications
Culture affects criminal law in at least two key ways. First, culture and crime symbiotically define each other. Second, culture helps explain which courtroom narratives will be successful, and which will not. Culture influences who will be arrested, charged, convicted, and what sentence they will receive. Indeed, the invisible hand of culture drives the process of criminalization and helps to determine which acts we will sanction through criminal statutes.
The Anticanonical Lesson Of Huckleberry Finn, Sharon E. Rush
The Anticanonical Lesson Of Huckleberry Finn, Sharon E. Rush
UF Law Faculty Publications
Some books included in the canon of American literature no longer belong there, because they presently lack normative approval. Adapting concepts found in constitutional law, an anticanon of American literature functions the way the anticanon of constitutional law would operate and explicitly removes books from the canon. In law, the anticanon identifies outdated interpretations of the constitution. In education, it is time to consider removing from the canon and placing in an anticanon books that are inconsistent with multicultural education. One such book is Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, which is part of the canon of American literature and viewed as …
Sharing Space: Why Racial Goodwill Isn't Enough, Sharon E. Rush
Sharing Space: Why Racial Goodwill Isn't Enough, Sharon E. Rush
UF Law Faculty Publications
Racism is understood by most White people to be an attitude of prejudice toward Blacks. In contrast, Blacks define racism more inclusively; it is a system of institutional preferences for Whites, resulting from historically ingrained prejudices Whites have against Blacks. People of goodwill are disinclined to attribute racial connotations to ordinary, everyday negative interactions involving Whites and people of color as long as the Whites are people of goodwill (people who do not think they have prejudiced attitudes). Second, goodwill comfort is important to maintain, causing many Whites to shy away from any discussions about race. People of goodwill have …
Diversity: The Red Herring Of Equal Protection, Sharon E. Rush
Diversity: The Red Herring Of Equal Protection, Sharon E. Rush
UF Law Faculty Publications
Couching the constitutional inquiry in cases like Bakke and VMI in the context of integration also puts in perspective the diversity justification. Affirmative action policies are constitutional because they integrate state programs. Integration on the basis of race and sex also diversifies state programs. In contrast, attempts to justify sex-segregation in state programs by arguing the policy promotes diversity is irrelevant to an equal protection analysis. Voluntarily created all-female schools should be constitutional because they promote the equal citizenship of women without damaging the equal citizenship stature of men. This is true for voluntarily race-segregated programs for minorities; as well. …