Law and Race Commons^™

Panel 1 - Towards Effective Governmental Intervention: Ending Discrimination In The Workplace, Rebecca Salawdeh, Patrick Patterson, Victoria Lipnic, Carol Miaskoff, Hnin Khaing

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

FACILITATOR: Good morning, everyone and welcome to the “Enhancing Antidiscrimination Laws in Education and Employment Symposium”, hosted by the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law, the American, and the National Institute for Workers’ Rights (“Institute”). And without further ado, let me pass it off to the Institute’s board president, Rebecca Salawdeh

Laboratories Of Democracy: State Law As A Partial Solution To Workplace Harassment, Ann C. Mcginley

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Despite the recent public awakening concerning both sexism and racism in our society, the federal courts have systematically chipped away at employees’ civil rights under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to be free of both sexual and racial harassment at work.

Hair Me Out: Why Discrimination Against Black Hair Is Race Discrimination Under Title Vii, Alexis Boyd

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In May 2010, Chastity Jones sought employment as a customer service representative at Catastrophe Management Solutions (“CMS”), a claims processing company located in Mobile, Alabama. When asked for an inperson interview, Jones, a Black woman, arrived in a suit and her hair in “short dreadlocks,” or locs, a type of natural hairstyle common in the Black community. Despite being qualified for the position, Jones would later have her offer rescinded because of her hair. CMS claimed that locs “tend to get messy” and violated the “neutral” dress code and hair policy requiring employees to be “professional and business-like.” Therefore, CMS …

How To Get Away With Discrimination: The Use Of Algorithms To Discriminate In The Internet Entertainment Industry, Sumra Wahid

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In July 2021, Ziggi Tyler posted a video on TikTok, a popular video sharing platform, where he expressed his frustration with being a Black content creator on TikTok. The video showed Ziggi typing phrases such as “Black Lives Matter” or “Black success” into his Marketplace creator bio, which the app would immediately flag as inappropriate content. However, when Ziggi replaced those words with “white supremacy” or “white success,” no inappropriateness warning appeared. Although a TikTok spokesperson responded to the video clarifying that the app had mistakenly flagged phrases without considering word order, Ziggi refused to let an algorithm absolve TikTok …

Panel 4 - Severe Or Pervasive: Towards Empowering Workers, Allegra Fishel, Joe Sellers, Bernice Yeung, Ann Mcginley, Alexis Ronickher

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

FACILITATOR: All right. We’re back and I wanted to introduce our moderator for our panel, Severe or Pervasive: Towards Empowering Workers. We have Ms. Allegra Fishel moderating. Ms. Fishel is a seasoned civil rights advocate and the founder of The Gender Equality Law Center. So, thank you so much for being here and, Ms. Fishel, I turn it over to you.

Panel 5 - The Future Of Employment Law, Karla Gilbride, Geraldine Sumter, Stephen Rich, Marcia Mccormick, Michael Selmi

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

FACILITATOR: All right everyone, welcome to our last panel, “The Future of Employment Law.” I want to quickly introduce our moderator, Karla Gilbride, the co-director of the Access to Justice Project. Karla, you can take it away.

Foreword Introduction To Symposium: Enhancing Anti-Discrimination Laws In Education And Employment, Susan D. Carle

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

When this Symposium was first conceived in the Summer of 2021, the nation was just emerging from the first phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the beginning of trying to go back to life as normal. Given this reawakening, the Symposium’s planning committee felt the urgency of a need to regroup, rethink, and reassess the state of employment antidiscrimination law. We were not sure where others would be on this possible project, given the newness of the hopeful end to lockdowns and social isolation and return to “normal” concerns. But we quickly found that those who joined the Symposium …

Letter From The Editor, Adriana E. Morquecho

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

It is an honor to write this editor’s note for Volume 30.2 of the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law (“Journal”) commemorating our Symposium co-hosted by the National Institute for Workers’ Rights (“Institute”), “Enhancing Anti-Discrimination Laws in Education & Employment.” The Symposium and this Volume are a culmination of months of tireless work to draw attention to an area of law needing greater attention—employment and education discrimination

Panel 2 - Unreported Shortcomings Of Title Ix, Lisa Taylor, Leslie Annexstein, Elizabeth Kristein, Natasha Martin, Elizabeth Kristen

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

MODERATOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our second panel, Unreported Shortcomings of Title IX. I’m going to start off with a quick introduction of our moderator. Today we have Dean Lisa Taylor who is our Dean for Diversity, Inclusion and Affinity Relations at WCL. She is much beloved by students of the Journal and students of WCL in general. And I know she is going to kick off a great panel. Dean Taylor, it’s all yours.

Reflection On Progress Without Equity: Title Ix K-12 Athletics At Fifty, Elizabeth Kristen

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) turned fifty this year. Despite tremendous progress for women and girls over the last five decades, the promise of gender equity in athletics remains elusive, especially at the K-12 level. Unlike so many other civil rights laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s, Title IX remains a highly under-litigated and underenforced statute. A basic Westlaw search for “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” yields more than 10,000 federal cases. But the same search for “Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972” yields about 2500 cases. Only …

Trauma-Informed (As A Matter Of) Course, Natalie Netzel

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Law students are impacted by trauma and law professors are in a position to help by adopting a trauma-informed approach as a matter of universal precaution. The 2021 Survey of Law Student Well-Being (“SLSWB”) revealed that over twenty percent of responding law students meet criteria that indicate they should be evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”). The study also revealed that almost fifty percent of responding students reported an important motivation for attending law school was experiencing a trauma or injustice. Put differently, law schools are full of law students who have experienced trauma, many of whom are actively struggling …

Ensuring The Laws Barring Sexual Harassment Protect The Reticent Victim, Joseph M. Sellers, Aniko R. Schwarcz

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

According to multiple employee surveys, sexual harassment is one of the most underreported forms of abuse in the workplace. There are a number of reasons that reportedly account for this reluctance to complain about sexual harassment. They include the potential shame, embarrassment, and fear that may accompany reports of sexual harassment and the blame and heightened scrutiny of the victim that may be prompted by these complaints. Unlike most other forms of discrimination, where their presence may be inferred from patterns observed in workforce data, sexual harassment is typically undetectable and certainly not actionable unless it is the subject of …

The Battle Over Bostock: Dueling Presidential Administrations & The Need For Consistent And Reliable Lgbt Rights, Regina L. Hillman

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court released its opinion in the landmark civil rights case, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. In the Bostock decision, the Court held that protections from employment discrimination “because of sex” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Prior to the Court’s decision, millions of LGBT employees had no protection from discriminatory treatment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and discrimination was pervasive.

Anti-Abortion Statutes As Religious Beliefs, Scott Devito

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Alito ruled there is no right, under the U.S. Constitution, for a woman to have an abortion. Since then, eleven states have either enacted or activated statutes that forbid the performance of an abortion. Others may soon follow suit. This Article does not attempt to dispute the reasoning of the Dobbs decision. Instead, it asks whether the eleven state statutes, now construed as constitutionally permitted, are, in fact impermissible intrusions into the constitutionally required separation of church and state. This Article approaches this problem from both a historical and philosophical perspective. First, …

The Law Of Friends, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

A serious law professor would not write an article about the TV show Friends, but having just written a book and an article, I’m on a “break.” Besides, I’m not that serious a law professor. And Friends is as good a topic as any. For those of us of a certain age—too young to have watched M.A.S.H. when it came out and old enough to remember watching broadcast TV and not just through a streaming service on a device—Friends was and is a big deal. It both captured a particular moment in history and helped make that moment.

Looking back …

Unmasking The Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Through The Pandemic Lenses Of Liberty, Loss, Masculinity, And Leadership [Comments], Jamie Abrams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Celebrating the Centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment in this political, economic, and social moment was a tale of two extremes. On the one hand, the Centennial occurred contemporaneously with the election of Kamala Harris as the nation's first woman Vice President offering a tremendous celebratory bookend of political success. On the other hand, we celebrated the Centennial amid a global pandemic that has taken over 740,000 American lives2 and in a crescendo of searingly painful calls for racial justice. In reflecting on the Centennial in this political, social, and economic moment, this article unmasks the lenses of loss, liberty, masculinity, …

The Economic Justice Imperative For Lawyers In Trump Country, Priya Baskaran

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article serves as a call to action for rural law schools to meaningfully incorporate economic justice into transactional legal education, and in doing so, train much needed rural advocates, legal experts, and local leaders. Rural areas are continuously portrayed as “Trump Country” in today’s mainstream media coverage, which largely focuses on socio-cultural differences between urban and rural areas. Many rural scholars and activists are troubled by the “Trump Country” label as it masks the structural poverty issues that lead to housing insecurity, water insecurity, poor public health indicators, unemployment, underemployment, troubled public education systems, and environmental degradation impacting both …

Jezebels And Jungle Bunnies: How The Stereotypes Of Black Women Shape Legislation, The Legal Profession, And Feminist Jurisprudence, Kersti Myles

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Stories Of Teaching Race, Gender, And Class: A Narrative, Brenda V. Smith

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Essay transcribes and discusses Smith's keynote speech at the New England Clinical Conference at Harvard Law School in November, 2015. Smith's speech discusses the intersection between race, gender, and class, highlighting them as sites of vulnerability through a personal storytelling lens. By sharing her individual experiences, Smith hopes to draw attention to insecurities and threats faced by many individuals who refuse to speak out.

Angry Employees: Revisiting Insubordination In Title Vii Cases, Susan Carle, Susan D. Carle

Faculty Collected Scholarship and Works

In too many Title VII cases, employees find themselves thrown out of court because they reacted angrily to reasonable perceptions of employer discrimination. In the race context, supervisors repeatedly call employees the n-word and use other racial epithets, order African American employees to perform work others in the same job classification do not have to do, and impose discipline white employees do not face for the comparable conduct. In the gender context, courts throw out plaintiffs’ cases even where supervisors engage in egregious sexual harassment. Employees who react angrily to such demeaning treatment—by cursing, shouting, refusing an order or leaving …

Stories Of Teaching Race, Gender, And Class: A Narrative, Brenda V. Smith

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Essay arises out of the keynote speech that I gave at the New England Clinical Conference at Harvard Law School in November 2015. The conference theme was, “Teaching Race, Gender and Class: Learning from Our Students, Communities and Each Other.” The primary planners and hosts for the conference were clinical teachers and programs in the Northeast, but participants came from around the country to talk about the importance of addressing race, gender and class in this moment of black lives mattering. They wanted to talk about the way that these issues of race, gender and class had always been …

The Collapse Of The House That Ruth Built: The Impact Of The Feeder System On Female Judges And The Federal Judiciary, 1970-2014, Alexandra G. Hess

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Diversity Challenge: Exploring The 'Invisible College' Of International Arbitration, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

As diversity can affect the perceived legitimacy of a state’s dispute resolution system and the quality of judicial decisions, diversity levels in the national bench and bar have been an area of transnational concern. By contrast, little is known about diversity of adjudicators and counsel in international arbitration. With a lack of accurate, complete, and publicly available data about international arbitrators and practitioners, speculation about membership in the “invisible college” of international arbitration abounds. Using data from a survey of attendees at the prestigious and elite biennial Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration permitted one glimpse into the …

Minority Over-Representation In The Criminal Justice System―The Impact On African American Women, Families And Their Communities And Important Emerging Interventions, Brenda V. Smith

Presentations

sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in partnership with Mental Health Systems, Inc.

Aryans, Gender, And American Politics, Robert Tsai

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This short essay discusses some of the ways in which the Aryan movement in America activates gendered beliefs for the goal of legal, political, and cultural transformation. In recent years, the community has moved from common law theories of white sovereignty to more robust forms of racial constitutionalism. The piece is drawn from "America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions of Power and Community"

Progressive Lawyering In Politically Depressing Times, Susan Carle

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION: Susan Sturm's important work offers a ray of optimism in a contemporary political climate most people of progressive inclinations find somewhat depressing. Sturm examines new models for bringing about institutional re- form without extensive management from legislatures or courts. As Sturm recognizes, resort to litigation as a strategy for increasing gender parity in employment is not a promising option these days, for several sets of reasons. First, as Sturm has explained in an earlier pathbreaking article, judicial decrees are not well suited to addressing "second generation" problems of structural reform of institutions, such as eliminating manifestations of race and …

I Am Certain He Is The Man...I Think, Tim Harris

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Gender Hate Propaganda And Sexual Violence In The Rwandan Genocide: An Argument For Intersectionality In International Law, Llezlie Green

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article explores the gendered dimensions of genocidal hate propaganda before and during the Rwandan genocide and proposes that the international tribunal consider these cases with an intersectional approach that attempts to fully appreciate the harm inflicted upon Tutsi women.

Women In Law, Susan Carle

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

O'Connor: A Dual Role - An Introduction, Stephen Wermiel

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.