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Full-Text Articles in Law and Society
The Invention Of Asian Americans, Robert S. Chang
The Invention Of Asian Americans, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
The essay begins by examining amicus briefs submitted in Fisher v. Texas by Asian American organizations in support of and in opposition to affirmative action. What does it mean when groups that purportedly protect, advance, and represent the interests of Asian Americans invoke the historical treatment of Asian Americans and present facts about Asian Americans but end up advocating for opposite outcomes? This Essay starts with the competing Asian American perspectives and assertions of authority expressed in these briefs to explore the theme of a Symposium at the UC Irvine School of Law, provocatively entitled, Reigniting Community: Strengthening the APA …
Review Of Colin Dayan’S The Law Is A White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make And Unmake Persons, Dean Spade
Review Of Colin Dayan’S The Law Is A White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make And Unmake Persons, Dean Spade
Faculty Articles
Professor Dean Spade reviews Colin Dayan’s The Law Is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons.
Half-Full, Half-Empty? Asian American Electoral ‘Presence’ In 2008, Robert S. Chang, Keith Aoki
Half-Full, Half-Empty? Asian American Electoral ‘Presence’ In 2008, Robert S. Chang, Keith Aoki
Faculty Articles
The article discusses the role of Asian Americans in the election of the U.S. President Barack Obama in 2008. It notes that the influence of Asian American in national politics may not significantly affect the next cycles of presidential elections in the U.S. It notes the importance of patience and optimism in envisioning and constructing Asian American electorate.
Stories Absent From The Courtroom: Responding To Domestic Violence In The Context Of Hiv And Aids, Jane Stoever
Stories Absent From The Courtroom: Responding To Domestic Violence In The Context Of Hiv And Aids, Jane Stoever
Faculty Articles
HIV/AIDS dramatically impacts domestic violence survivors' needs and demands reconceptualization of current responses to domestic violence. This article aims to illuminate the problem of domestic violence in the context of HIV/AIDS and to prompt further development of legal response systems. Specifically, this article brings together the worlds of law, public health, and women's lived experiences to argue for recognizing and responding to domestic violence in the context of HIV/AIDS in the United States. Utilizing accounts of clients' experiences and data from public health studies, this article sets forth eight categories of HIV/AIDS-related domestic violence: repercussions from partner notification, use of …
Somerset’S Case And Its Antecedents In Imperial Perspective, George Van Cleve
Somerset’S Case And Its Antecedents In Imperial Perspective, George Van Cleve
Faculty Articles
The article offers a look on the Somerset's Case that served as a milestone in the campaign to abolish slavery in Great Britain. The case become famous in the Anglo-American law of slavery, with its proceedings widely circulated in periodicals. However, historians have argued about what the ruling was and its effects. It has been known in English slavery law that courts prior to the case generally agreed that English law governed status, but also limited slavery, for slaves who came to England.
Freedom In A Regulatory State?: Lawrence, Marriage And Biopolitics, Dean Spade, Craig Willse
Freedom In A Regulatory State?: Lawrence, Marriage And Biopolitics, Dean Spade, Craig Willse
Faculty Articles
This paper attempts to trace the links between the Lawrence v. Texas decision and campaigns for gay marriage rights in order to envision movements that seek justice for more than just the most racially and economically privileged lesbians and gay men. The authors outline the limits of the agenda represented by Lawrence and propose alternative modes for resisting the coercive regulation of sexuality, gender, and family formations.
Essay: A Search For Reason In Fairy Tales, John F. Hernandez
Essay: A Search For Reason In Fairy Tales, John F. Hernandez
Faculty Articles
A fairy tale: Once upon at time (not so very long ago), in a land (not so far away) lived a beautiful queen (well, actually a "runner up ") with a golden voice. The beautiful queen reined over her people and sang of sunshine. Some of the queen's subjects had felt that they were not treated fairly by the laws of the land and sought to have their unfair treatment prohibited. Apparently, this caused the queen to develop a fear and hatred for these subjects. These subjects had done nothing to the queen. Yet, the queen made it her mission …
(Racial) Profiles In Courage, Or Can We Be Heroes, Too?, Robert S. Chang
(Racial) Profiles In Courage, Or Can We Be Heroes, Too?, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
This article begins with the controversy over a proposed monument based on a widely disseminated photograph of three firefighters raising the American flag over the ruins of the World Trade Center. The three firefighters were White. The proposed monument would have had one White firefighter, one Black, and one Hispanic. This article argues that the controversy over the proposed monument serves as a microcosm for the larger and more important struggle over racial and gender diversity within fire departments, generally.
“Forget The Alamo”: Race Courses As A Struggle Over History And Collective Memory, Robert S. Chang
“Forget The Alamo”: Race Courses As A Struggle Over History And Collective Memory, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
This article discusses issues related to the study and teaching of race and ethnicity. Professor Chang explains the way race is taught or not taught in law schools is reflective of the historical and factual predicates we want our students to have. Faculty diversification can have an impact on the courses that are taught. Most, if not all, of the courses on critical race theory are taught by faculty-of-color. Most of the primary courses on Latinas/os and the law are taught by Latinas/os. If more related and primary courses are going to be offered by schools, then it seems that …
Syllabus: Asian Americans And The Law, Robert S. Chang
Syllabus: Asian Americans And The Law, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
This is the accompanying syllabus to the essay by Professor Chang, “Teaching Asian Americans and the Law: Struggling with History, Identity, and Politics.” The article explores the goals and challenges in constructing a course on Asian Americans and the Law. In his course on Asian Americans and the Law, Professor Chang tries to include in the weekly reading packets history, narratives, and cases. Professor Chang includes the narratives because he has found that the students often have a difficult time relating to the history without them. After all, narratives bring life to history, making it easier for students to relate …
The Sojourner’S Truth And Other Stories, Robert S. Chang
The Sojourner’S Truth And Other Stories, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
In this introductory essay to a cluster of articles on Migrations, Citizens, and Latinas/os, Professor Chang frames the work of Ruben Garcia, Camille Nelson, and Victor Romero as setting forth what might be described as truths that can be learned from the sojourner/immigrant. This essay argues that the sojourner/immigrant's contributions to U.S. society are often ignored or discounted, which may be due to a willful amnesia because we do not want to think about what we might owe the sojourner/immigrant with regard to her entry into the United States, her stay, and her departure.
Sight, Sound, And Stereotype: The War On Terrorism And Its Consequences For Latinas/Os, Steven W. Bender
Sight, Sound, And Stereotype: The War On Terrorism And Its Consequences For Latinas/Os, Steven W. Bender
Faculty Articles
In the days and weeks following the September 11 terrorist attacks, reports emerged of hate crimes, discrimination, and profiling directed at Arab Americans, Arabs, and Muslims in the United States. Although aware that the primary targets of the public and private response against terrorism were those of Arab or Muslim appearance, I realized that the backlash within the United States also affected Latinas/os and certain other subordinated groups. This Article grew out of my concern that while Latinas/os at first might be deemed "safe" by the American public, their negative societal construction made their targeting inevitable as the fervent, amorphous …
When Interests Diverge, Robert S. Chang, Peter Kwan
When Interests Diverge, Robert S. Chang, Peter Kwan
Faculty Articles
In this review of Mary Dudziak's important book, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton Univ. Press 2000), Professors Chang and Kwan find the book to provide compelling historical narratives about the intersection of the Cold War and civil rights struggles. Dudziak demonstrates through an amazing array of historical evidence a story that runs counter to the standard narrative of racial sin followed by racial redemption, which helps us to reassess who we are and to be cognizant of the work that remains.
Closing Essay: Developing A Collective Memory To Imagine A Better Future, Robert S. Chang
Closing Essay: Developing A Collective Memory To Imagine A Better Future, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
This closing essay to a symposium inaugurating UCLA Law School's Program in Critical Race Studies suggests that the racialized Asian American body can operate as a site for collective memory and thus serve as reminders of past mistakes in order to restrain current and future abuses of power. One of the lessons to be learned is from World War II when extreme subordination of one Asian American group, Japanese Americans, was accompanied by the elimination of certain barriers for another Asian American group, Chinese Americans. A similar dynamic may be happening now following September 11. With the increase in legal …
Los Angeles As A Single-Cell Organism, Robert S. Chang
Los Angeles As A Single-Cell Organism, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
In this article, Professor Robert S. Chang discusses the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart scandal. Professor Chang compares Los Angeles to a single-celled organism that lives according to three basic survival rules. These three rules are: 1) keep out that which is undesirable, 2) isolate and control that which cannot be kept out, and 3) expel, whenever possible, undesirable elements. The author first discusses some of the historical antecedents to the Rampart scandal in Los Angeles. The author then discusses how the United States as a whole has historically acted according to the three basic survival rules exhibited by a …
Erasing Race? A Critical Race Feminist View Of Internet Identity Shifting, Margaret Chon
Erasing Race? A Critical Race Feminist View Of Internet Identity Shifting, Margaret Chon
Faculty Articles
Race and gender become even more abstract in the disembodied presence they inhabit online. This article outlines the importance of being sensitive to the under-identified online presence of race and gender related issues, with an in depth discussion of the complications these issues face.
Introduction: Performing Latcrit, Robert S. Chang, Natasha Fuller
Introduction: Performing Latcrit, Robert S. Chang, Natasha Fuller
Faculty Articles
This introduction examines the four articles in this cluster on LatCrit praxis. The four articles can be seen as case studies that explore different aspects of LatCrit praxis. Pedro Malavet examines the role literature and the arts can play as a form of antisubordinationist practice. Nicholas Gunia focuses on Jamaican music as a particular site of antisubordinationist practice, showing us that resistance comes in many forms and that LatCrit practitioners must have a broad theory for social change that is not limited to legislatures, courtrooms, classrooms, and law reviews. Alfredo Mirande Gonzalez employs personal narrative to tell us how he …
Facing History, Facing Ourselves: Eric Yamamoto And The Quest For Justice, Robert S. Chang
Facing History, Facing Ourselves: Eric Yamamoto And The Quest For Justice, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
Professor Robert Chang reviews Professor Eric Yamamoto’s Interracial Justice: Conflict And Reconciliation In Post-Civil Rights America. Professor Chang illustrates the analytic framework in Interracial Justice that shows us some of the ingredients necessary for a successful resolution. This book is the culmination of several years of activist lawyering and academic writing. In his book, Professor Yamamoto shares the lessons he has learned as an advocate and law professor.
Dreaming In Black And White: Racial-Sexual Policing In The Birth Of A Nation, The Cheat, And Who Killed Vincent Chin?, Robert S. Chang
Dreaming In Black And White: Racial-Sexual Policing In The Birth Of A Nation, The Cheat, And Who Killed Vincent Chin?, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
Professor Chang observes that Asians are often perceived as interlopers in the nativistic American "family." This conception of a nativist "family" is White in composition and therefore accords a sense of economic and sexual entitlement to Whites, ironically, even if particular beneficiaries are recent immigrants. Transgressions by those perceived to be "illegitimate," such as Asians and Blacks, are policed either by rule of law or the force of sanctioned vigilante violence. Chang illustrates his thesis by drawing upon the three films referenced.
Who's Afraid Of Tiger Woods?, Robert S. Chang
Who's Afraid Of Tiger Woods?, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
Responding to media celebrations on the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball that portray America’s battle for racial justice having been won, this article posits putting racially diverse sport stars on a pedestal misleading. This goes on to ask and explain what sports represent in a democratic society and how Tiger Woods forces us to ask the ‘race’ question. Finally, the article discusses multiracialism and LatCrit scholarship.
Foreword: Toward A Radical And Plural Democracy, Robert S. Chang
Foreword: Toward A Radical And Plural Democracy, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
In this foreword, Professor Chang lays the foundation for a discussion on the systematic discrimination built in to the United States democracy. He points out how this foundation caters to the prototypical straight, white male. The foreword ends with how these issues are addressed specifically in the symposium.
Being Between: A Review Of Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, And Poetry, Margaret Chon
Being Between: A Review Of Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, And Poetry, Margaret Chon
Faculty Articles
In this essay Professor Chon reviews Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, and Poetry. Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora is the second volume of a series on the theme of "Gender, Culture, and Global Politics." Professor Sharon Hom, who edited this volume, deliberately contextualizes the "I" and "we" that supply the narrative voice and subject in each of these works as specific ethnic, gendered, and generational locations within Asian America. However, Professor Chon illustrates how this anthology is not so much about the "I" as it is about the "we." Professor Horn is engaged in a project of excavating individual histories …
The Nativist's Dream Of Return, Robert S. Chang
The Nativist's Dream Of Return, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
In this address, Professor Robert Chang discusses how the current racial paradigm has become naturalized so that race in America is generally understood to mean black and white. It is this notion of race that limits people understanding and willingness to engage with the history and current state of Asian Americans and Latinos in the United States. Instead of being interested participants, they are seen as interlopers. Yet this status as interloper is precisely why Asian Americans and Latinos are important in discussions of race-our existence disrupts the comfortable binary of the black/white racial paradigm in which the black racial …
Chon On Chen On Chang, Margaret Chon
Chon On Chen On Chang, Margaret Chon
Faculty Articles
This essay attempts to highlight and explore Bob Chang's implicit disclaimers for an Asian American legal scholarship situated within post-structuralism: that it is contingent, ironic, and yearns for a chimerical solidarity, these qualities should not lead to the conclusion that his claims lack positive vision, the narrative space that Chang advocates allows for creative articulations of Asian presence in America, in both theoretical and practical realms. Thus, after considering the nature of the misunderstanding between Chang and Chen, the author will turn briefly to one example of positive articulation-the diaspora perspective-and read it into Jim Chen's text.
The End Of Innocence Or Politics After The Fall Of The Essential Subject, Robert S. Chang
The End Of Innocence Or Politics After The Fall Of The Essential Subject, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
Stuart Hall, writing in the context of British Cultural Studies, describes the demise of the essential black subject as the end of innocence. We have seen in feminist theory and in critical race theory the debate about essentialism, along with various recuperative proposals such as intersectionality, multiple consciousness, positionality, and strategic essentialism. Rather than revisit those discussions, Professor Chang raises the possibility of constructing new subject positions in an attempt to move us beyond the difference divide, to move us from identity politics as we now know it to political identities. In this essay, Professor Chang asks whether we can …
Reverse Racism!: Affirmative Action, The Family, And The Dream That Is America, Robert S. Chang
Reverse Racism!: Affirmative Action, The Family, And The Dream That Is America, Robert S. Chang
Faculty Articles
In this essay, Professor Chang explores the interaction of race and family in the affirmative action debate. Although discrimination against women remains rampant in our society, and despite the fact that white women have been the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action, white women are being told that affirmative action hurts them because it hurts their husbands, brothers, and sons. Familial loyalty is being invoked to do the work of an explicit call for white racial solidarity. This strategy may be successful because as late as 1987, even with the increasing rate of interracial marriage, 99% of white Americans were married …
Speaking Of Rights, Janet Ainsworth
Speaking Of Rights, Janet Ainsworth
Faculty Articles
Professor Janet Ainsworth reviews Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse, by Mary Ann Glendon. The thesis of Mary Ann Glendon's book is a provocative one: that the way in which Americans talk about rights is dangerous to our political and social well-being as a nation. Professor Ainsworth explores the specifics of rights discourse that Glendon describes, and provides a thorough critique of Rights Talk.
Self-Reliance And Coalition In An Age Of Reaction, Henry Mcgee
Self-Reliance And Coalition In An Age Of Reaction, Henry Mcgee
Faculty Articles
In this Foreward, Professor McGee comments on the continued vitality of the Black Law Journal. This vitality shows that the plight of racial minorities will be continually addressed from a variety of intellectual perspectives.