Digital Commons Network^™

Mestizaje And The Mexican Mestizo Self: No Hay Sangre Negra, So There Is No Blackness, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

Many legal scholars who write about Mexican mestizaje omit references to Afromexicans, Mexico’s African roots, and contemporary anti-black sentiments in the Mexican and Mexican American communities. The reasons for the erasure or invisibility of Mexico’s African roots are complex. It argues that post-colonial officials and theorists in shaping Mexico’s national image were influenced two factors: the Spanish colonial legacy and the complex set of rules creating a race-like caste system with a distinct anti-black bias reinforced through art; and the negative images of Mexico and Mexicans articulated in the United States during the early nineteenth century. The post-colonial Mexican becomes …

Interior Revolutions: Doing Domesticity, Advocating Feminism In Contemporary American Fiction, Kalene Westmoreland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Domesticity has endured as a facet of everyday life in the late twentieth century and beyond, despite cultural acceptance of feminist beliefs and ideals which encourage women’s movement away from the private sphere of the home. A tumultuous and remarkable cultural transformation has marked the four decades since the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, a key text of early second-wave feminism. Equality and choice seem viable and attainable, yet many women today feel overwhelmed by responsibilities and the pressure to live up to the idealization of motherhood. Domesticity can be used as a tool of oppression, against which …

Separation Anxieties: Representations Of Separatist Communities In Late Twentieth Century Fiction And Film, Brett Alan Riley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the late 20th century and beyond, American social movements advocating equality have increased national attention to issues of exclusion, inclusion, and multiculturalism within communities. As a result, studying the nature of communities—how the term "community" might be defined, who belongs to a given group or social structure, who does not belong, and why—has become increasingly important. American artists have responded by exploring these sites of social, political, and personal change in their works. Separation Anxieties: Representations of Separatist Communities in Late Twentieth Century Fiction and Film analyzes seven fictional works in which some group is philosophically and/or geographically isolated—sometimes …

Race, Genetic Variation, And The Haplotype Mapping Project, Pilar N. Ossorio

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Racially-Tailored” Medicine Unraveled, Sharona Hoffman

ExpressO

In June 2005, the FDA approved BiDil, a heart failure medication that is labeled for use only by African-Americans and thus, is the first treatment of its kind. The drug likely portends a future of growing interest in “race-based” medicine. This phenomenon is emerging at the same time that scientists, in light of the Human Genome Project, are reaching an understanding that “race” has no biological meaning, and consequently, “racially-tailored” medicine is both puzzling and troubling.

This Article explores the reasons for the new focus on “racial-profiling” in medicine. It analyzes the risks and dangers of this approach, including medical …

A Phylogenetic Approach For The Study Of Variation And Determination Of Population Affiliation Of Indigent Human Skeletal Remains, Hattie Bea Wetherington

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has played a major role in human population studies over the past decade due to its maternal inheritance and negligible recombination (Macaulay, 1999). The mtDNA control region has been the focus of these studies due to the highly polymorphic nature of this non-coding region. Forensic scientists also use mtDNA to help determine the identity of missing individuals when nuclear DNA is not present. However, when skeletal remains are unclaimed, identification becomes near impossible. Therefore, mtDNA can play a valuable role in identification in terms of population affiliation, especially in conjunction with morphological analysis.

The goals of this …

Brown’S Lesson: To Integrate Or Separate Is Not The Question, But How To Achieve A Non-Racist Society, Thomas E. Kleven

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

After Georgia V. Ashcroft: The Primacy Of Proportionality, Felix B. Chang

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Note argues that the majority in Ashcroft have left courts with an unadministerable standard-not so much for reasons that Justice Souter articulated in his dissent, but rather because the Court provided no guidance on navigating around the myriad of factors in the convoluted totality analyses. Part I examines two cases after Ashcroft which represent different degrees of racial vote dilution: Shirt v. Hazeltine and Session v. Perry. Through other post-Ashcroft cases, Part II teases out the differences (i) between influence districts as injury and remedy and (ii) between a jurisdiction's Section 5 and Section 2 obligations--details closely related …

"Racially-Tailored" Medicine Unraveled, Sharona Hoffman

American University Law Review

In June 2005, the FDA approved BiDil, a heart failure medication that is labeled for use only by African-Americans and thus is the first treatment of its kind. The drug likely portends a future of growing interest in "race-based" medicine. This phenomenon is emerging at the same time that scientists, in light of the Human Genome Project, are reaching an understanding that "race" has no biological meaning, and consequently, "racially-tailored" medicine is both puzzling and troubling. This Article explores the reasons for the new focus on "racial-profiling" in medicine. It analyzes the risks and dangers of this approach, including medical …

True Integration: Advancing Brown's Goal Of Educational Equity In The Wake Of Grutter, Lia Epperson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

In Passing: Arab American Poetry And The Politics Of Race, Katherine Wardi-Zonna, Anissa Janine Wardi

Ethnic Studies Review

Racial passing has a long history in America. In fact, there are manifold reasons for passing, not the least of which is to reap benefits-social, economic and legal-routinely denied to people of color. Passing is conventionally understood to be a volitional act that either situationally or permanently allows members of marginalized groups to assimilate into a privileged culture. While it could be argued that those who choose to pass are, in a sense, race traitors, betraying familial, historical and cultural ties to personhood,1 Wald provides another way of reading passing, or "crossing the line," as a "practice that emerges from …

Controlling Identity: Plessy, Privacy, And Racial Defamation, Jonathan Kahn

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the origins of privacy law in early twentieth century America in relation to the legal solidification of Jim Crow in the aftermath of Plessy v. Ferguson. It considers some distinctively southern aspects of the origins of the right to privacy and argues that by viewing privacy, racial defamation, and Jim Crow in relation to each other, we can gain new insights into each-coming to understand that Plessy was not just about controlling space, or property, or even equality but also about controlling identity itself, and coming to see that in its origins, the right to privacy had …

Black Protectionism As A Civil Rights Strategy, Katheryn Russell-Brown

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article has identified and outlined the parameters of Black protectionism, a practice used by African-Americans to protect prominent community members who have been charged with criminal or unethical activity. This practice took root during slavery-during a time when a false or minor charge against one African-American could result in death or great bodily harm to him and scores of other African-Americans. History has cultivated a culture of Black mistrust of Whites in particular and mainstream society in general. This suspicion is reinforced with the continued disparate treatment of African-Americans within the criminal justice system. History and contemporary conditions explain …

Transforming The Hood: Faith-Based Organizations In New Orleans And Community Development, Jaime Beth Petenko

LSU Master's Theses

New Orleans is one of the most culturally unique cities in America. However, amidst its rich history and lively traditions, there exists extreme poverty and violence. The objective conditions of New Orleans such as poverty, unemployment, violence, poor healthcare, segregation, inadequate housing, drugs, and racism have created a cycle of despair that many in New Orleans cannot escape. These conditions are not isolated in New Orleans but reproduced and reinforced through the basic structure of American society, governmental and institutional policies, and ideologies. While all poor residents in New Orleans internalize and shape the oppression and marginalization they experience on …

Environmental Justice And The Integration Ideal, Rachel D. Godsil

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Preferring White Lives: The Racial Administration Of The Death Penalty In Maryland, Michael Millemann, Gary W. Christopher

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

By Any Other Name?: On Being “Regarded As” Black, And Why Title Vii Should Apply Even If Lakisha And Jamal Are White, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Mario L. Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

Forty years after the passage of Title VII, scholars Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan reported the results of their groundbreaking study, Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination. Their study revealed that simply having an African American-sounding name significantly decreased one's opportunity to receive a job interview, regardless of occupation or industry. The results of Bertrand and Mullainathan's investigation raise critical questions about the effectiveness of Title VII as a remedy for race discrimination in the hiring market today, especially as employment discrimination has evolved into different forms. As shown …

The Network Economic Effects Of Whiteness, Brant T. Lee

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In this Essay I demonstrate that a network economic analysis of race provides an important and intuitive explanation of racial inequality. In short, Whiteness is Microsoft's Windows operating system, or the QWERTY keyboard, or the standard (non-metric) measurement system, and it is difficult to dislodge for many of the same reasons. Network effects explain how (1) the establishment of a dominant market standard can be contingent on historical context, and it is not necessarily derived from superior intrinsic merit, and (2) a dominant standard exhibits strong self-reinforcing characteristics that can maintain the dominance of the standard in perpetuity, even in …

Juror First Votes In Criminal Trials, Stephen P. Garvey, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Valerie P. Hans, Nicole L. Mott, G. Thomas Munsterman, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Our analysis of the voting behavior of over 3,000 jurors in felony cases tried in Los Angeles, Maricopa County, the District of Columbia, and the Bronx reveals that only in D.C. does a juror's race appear to relate to how he or she votes. African-American jurors in D.C. appear more apt to vote not guilty on the jury's first ballot in cases involving minority defendants charged with drug offenses. We find no evidence, however, that this effect survives into the jury's final verdict.

Introduction To Law, Ethics, And Affirmative Action In America, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article discusses the language of the opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger. The rhetoric and language that we use to address race is difficult, if not tortured. The article explains why Grutter should have been an easy case and a simple opinion, and the ways in which the final opinion was anything but simple.

Justice By Geography And Race: The Administration Of The Death Penalty In Maryland, 1978-1999, Raymond Paternoster, Robert Brame, Sarah Bacon, Andrew Ditchfield

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Memphis Sings 'Soul' Music, Rural Does Country: School Finance Litigation In Tennessee, Lee A. Harris

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

[Review Of] Andrew Pilkington, Racial Disadvantage And Ethnic Diversity In Britain, Simboonath Singh

Ethnic Studies Review

Andrew Pilkington's Racial Disadvantage and Ethnic Diversity in Britain (2003) is a comprehensive and systematic study of race and ethnicity in contemporary Britain. The approach taken is decidedly sociological but incorporates an inter-disciplinary perspective, drawing upon areas such as History, Politics, Geography and Cultural Studies. In Chapter 1 the author makes a fine conceptual distinction between core concepts such as race and ethnicity and theoretically subscribes to the more dynamic social constructionist approach to ethnicity as an acceptable alternative to previous models. Racialization is invoked as an alternative problematic of racism to alert the reader to the dangers of reification …

Culture, Hybridity And The Dialogical Self: Cases From The South Asian-American Diaspora, Sunil Bhatia, Anjali Ram

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

This article outlines a dialogical approach to understanding how South Asian-American women living in diasporic locations negotiate their multiple and often conflicting cultural identities. We specifically use the concept of voice to articulate the different forms of dialogicality--polyphonization, expropriation, and ventriloquation--that are involved in the acculturation experiences of two 2nd-generation South Asian-American women. In particular, we argue that it is important to think of acculturation of the South Asian-American women as essentially a contested, dynamic, and dialogical process. We demonstrate that such a dialogical process involves a constant moving back and forth between various cultural voices that are connected to …

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Analogizing Ageism To Racism In Employment Discrimination Cases, Rhonda M. Reaves

Journal Publications

The development of anti-discrimination law in the employment context was designed and applied with the elimination of race discrimination in mind. The expansion of anti-discrimination law to older workers has taken place within a legal system that encourages groups to present themselves as "similar to" African Americans. This article explores the difficulty of applying general anti-discrimination principles to the uniquely positioned group of older workers.

Degrees Of Freedom: Building Citizenship In The Shadow Of Slavery, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

By seeing events in the past as part of a dynamically evolving system with a large, but not indefinite, number of degrees of freedom, we can turn our attention to the multiple possibilities for change, and to the ways in which societies that are initially similarly situated may go on to diverge very sharply. Thus it is, I will argue, with societies in the 19th century that faced the challenge of building citizenship on the ruins of slavery.

Tropi Can Can: Race And Performance In '50s Las Vegas, Malcolm Womack

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

In 1955 the Jim Crow resort town of Las Vegas opened its first interracial hotel/casino, the Moulin Rouge, and staged its first all-black production show, the Tropi Can Can revue. On the Cafe Rouge stage were the wild antics Stump & Stumpy, bringing a sad reminder of the past; the romantic music of the Platters, bringing a hopeful note for the future; and the very non-traditional showgirls, bringing a host of audience expectations about the immediate present; This paper attempts to deconstruct and analyze that show and the theatrical elements of the resort, the differing experiences of white and black …

"Insolent And Contemptuous Carriages": Re-Conceptualizing Illegitimacy In Colonial British America, John Watkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This Master's thesis investigates one particular aspect of sexuality in colonial Anglo America--the products of non-marital intercourse. Earlier historical research emphasized the importance of economic considerations in the creation of bastardy laws and the prosecution and punishment for violators of these statutes. Undoubtedly, financial anxieties were a major concern in out-of-wedlock births, but they were only one concern of many. Class, race, and gender dynamics were prominent in colonists' conceptualization of illegitimacy and largely defined who was at risk for having an "insolent and contemptuous carriage" and the resulting punishment for the debauched act. Elite, white officials made women, servants, …

Minding The Gap: An Assessment Of Racial Disparity In Metropolitan Chicago, Center For Urban Research And Learning, The Human Relations Foundation/Jane Addams Policy Initiative

Center for Urban Research and Learning: Publications and Other Works

In cooperation with the Human Relations Foundation of Chicago (HRF), CURL and the Jane Addams Hull House examined inequalities among racial and ethnic groups in Chicago. Drawing from a broad range of existing data sources, researchers documented areas of reduced inequality as well as other areas of persistent inequality.

Minding the Gap: An Assessment of Racial Disparity in Metropolitan Chicago examines seven quality of life measurements: income, wealth and employment, education, housing, transportation, health, the lives of children and the criminal justice system. This report, by examining these seven systems, not just one, creates a unique context for understanding both …

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.