Law and Race Commons^™

Commercial And Corporate Lawyers 'N The Hood, Alfred Dennis Mathewson

Faculty Scholarship

I shall begin the development of this proposition with a theme from a "Last Lecture" I was asked to deliver by the UNM Campus Ministries several years ago. I was asked to pretend that I would die immediately after giving the lecture. I opened the lecture with a story my mother used to tell us about the time she was traveling on Trailways with two of my older brothers, then toddlers. The bus driver asked her to move to the back of the bus. She had not wanted to get up but decided that compliance with the demand was in …

Minority Preferences Reconsidered, Terrance Sandalow

Reviews

During the academic year 1965-66, at the height of the civil rights movement, the University of Michigan Law School faculty looked around and saw not a single African-American student. The absence of any black students was not, it should hardly need saying, attributable to a policy of purposeful exclusion. A black student graduated from the Law School as early as 1870, and in the intervening years a continuous flow of African-American students, though not a large number, had been admitted and graduated. Some went on to distinguished careers in the law.

The World Refugee Regime In Crisis: A Failure To Fulfill The Burden-Sharing And Humanitarian Requirements Of The 1951 Refugee Convention, Susan M. Akram

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Musarat-Akram provided several examples which illustrate the crisis of the international refugee regime. Specifically, they illustrate, first, that the protections offered so generously in the language and purpose of the 1951 Refugee Convention⁷ are more European and-Western-centered than ever before.

Second, they illustrate some of the restrictionist policies by which Western and industrialized states have succeeded in confining huge refugee flows to the most impoverished and least developed states in the world.

Third, they illustrate that the initial limitations inherent in the 1951 Refugee Convention have now been exacerbated by state practice which interprets the Convention language and …

Tricky Magic: Blacks As Immigrants And The Paradox Of Foreignness, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Targets Missed And Targets Hit: Critical Tax Studies And Effective Tax Reform, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Medieval alchemy is popularly associated with attempts to become rich by transmuting base elements into gold. Such attempts were less than universally successful. Yet, alchemy yielded great benefits in other areas. For instance, alchemy was one of the sources of modern sciences such as pharmacology and metallurgy.' Also, the rich and profound symbology of alchemy has influenced modern psychology.

Something similar may be said of critical tax studies. Such studies have argued that the Internal Revenue Code as a whole, or significant features of it, disadvantage-intentionally or unintentionally-groups historically oppressed or ignored by American society. Some of these arguments have …

Against Common Sense: Why Title Vii Should. Protect Speakers Of Black English, Jill Gaulding

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The speech of many black Americans is marked by phrases such as 'we be writin"' or "we don't have no problems." Because most listeners consider such "Black English" speech patterns incorrect, these speakers face significant disadvantages in the job market. But common sense suggests that there is nothing discriminatory about employers' negative reactions to Black English because it makes sense to allow employers to insist that employees use correct grammar.

This article argues against this common sense understanding of Black English as bad grammar. The author first analyzes the extent of the job market disadvantages faced by Black English speakers …

Metropolitanism, Progressivism, And Race, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

Professor Zelinsky examines three books on local government. Two of these, Cities Without Suburbs, by David Rusk, and Citistates, by Neal Peirce, call for metropolitanizing the governance of urban areas. Our Town, by David L. Kirp, John P. Dwyer, and Larry A. Rosenthal, explores the Mt. Laurel litigation and its aftermath and suggests that the land use authority of local governments be diminished through court-ordered zoning for low-income housing.

Professor Zelinsky is skeptical of these well-intentioned proposals. The metropolitan governments advocated by Rusk and Peirce would be less responsive than the smaller localities they would replace and less likely to …

Passenger Profiling: A Greater Terror Than Terrorism Itself, 32 J. Marshall L. Rev. 167 (1998), Donna Smith

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

College Admission And Affirmative Action- Consequences And Alternatives, Ihan Kim

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

A review of The Shape of the River: Long Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions by Derek Bok & William Bowen

Perspectives On Affirmative Action / Rethinking Racial Divides: Asian Pacific Americans And The Law, Michigan Journal Of Race & Law

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Statements on affirmative action followed by the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association Symposium.

Can Money Whiten? Exploring Race Practice In Colonial Venezuela And Its Implications For Contemporary Race Discourse, Estelle T. Lau

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The Gracias al Sacar, a fascinating and seemingly inconceivable practice in eighteenth century colonial Venezuela, allowed certain individuals of mixed Black and White ancestry to purchase "Whiteness" from their King. The author exposes the irony of this system, developed in a society obsessed with "natural" ordering that labeled individuals according to their precise racial ancestry. While recognizing that the Gracias al Sacar provided opportunities for advancement and an avenue for material and social struggle, the author argues that it also justified the persistence of racial hierarchy. The Article concludes that the Gracias al Sacar, along with their present-day …

Law, Culture, And The Morality Of Judicial Choice, Kenneth B. Nunn

UF Law Faculty Publications

Remarks from Professor Kenneth B. Nunn at the Ray Rushton Distinguished Lecture Series at the Cumberland School of Law on April 24, 1998.

Out Of The Shadow: Marking Intersections In And Between Asian Pacific American Critical Legal Scholarship And Latina/O Critical Legal Theory, Elizabeth M. Iglesias

Articles

No abstract provided.

Race Trials, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

Asian America's Greatest Hits: A Review Of Angelo Ancheta's Race, Rights, And The Asian American Experience, Kevin M. Pimentel, Ronnie H. Rhoe

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

A review of Race, Rights, and the Asian American Experience by Angelo N. Ancheta.

Guns, Youth Violence, And Social Identity In Inner Cities, Jeffrey Fagan, Deanna L. Wilkinson

Faculty Scholarship

While youth violence has always been a critical part of delinquency, the modern epidemic is marked by high rates of gun violence. Adolescents in cities possess and carry guns on a large scale, guns are often at the scene of youth violence, and guns often are used. Guns play a central role in initiating, sustaining, and elevating the epidemic of youth violence. The demand for guns among youth was fueled by an "ecology of danger," comprising street gangs, expanding drug markets with high intrinsic levels of violence, high rates of adult violence and fatalities, and cultural styles of gun possession …

The Devil And The One Drop Rule: Racial Categories, African Americans, And The U.S. Census, Christine B. Hickman

Michigan Law Review

For generations, the boundaries of the African-American race have been formed by a rule, informally known as the "one drop rule," which, in its colloquial definition, provides that one drop of Black blood makes a person Black. In more formal, sociological circles, the rule is known as a form of "hypodescent" and its meaning remains basically the same: anyone with a known Black ancestor is considered Black. Over the generations, this rule has not only shaped countless lives, it has created the African-American race as we know it today, and it has defined not just the history of this race …

Legal Narratives, Theraputic Narratives: The Invisibility And Omnipresence Of Race And Gender, Leslie G. Espinoza

Michigan Law Review

My first introduction to Denise Gray was through a form. The intake sheet was dated October 17, 1994. The legal problem was straightforward. My introduction to Denise Gray would come much later. I am a clinical law professor. The clinic, Boston College Legal Assistance Bureau, is known as "LAB." I teach students law by supervising them as they represent, usually for the first time, a real person with real problems.

Lynching Ethics: Toward A Theory Of Racialized Defenses, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Death Penalty And The Decline Of Liberalism, 30 J. Marshall L. Rev. 321 (1997), John R. Macarthur

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Latcrit Praxis To Heal Fractured Communities, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay explores LatCrit praxis as a healing tool. Before turning to LatCrit practice, let me offer a preliminary observation that many Latinos are troubled by leading divided lives in fractured communities. This is exacerbated by social conditioning which encourages Latinos, as well as other outsiders, to fragment their identities. One of the benefits of LatCrit theory is that it encourages the process of working toward wholeness. At a recent conference which looked at the courage of those who have decided to live lives divided no more, Parker Palmer, the plenary speaker, suggested that the spark which causes people to …

Deconstructing The Ideology Of White Aesthetics, John M. Kang

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In this Article, the author provides a discussion on the dynamic between race and aesthetics. The author states that because Whites are the dominant group in America, they dictate what is beautiful. The consequence of this power dynamic is that the dominant group, Whites, can exercise preferences in deciding how to look or express themselves, whereas people of color are limited to either conforming to an imposed White standard or rejecting it. The author starts by laying out some of the features to what he terms the "ideology of White aesthetics." He then commences to examine how this ideology has …

In Sisterhood, Lisa C. Ikemoto

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

A review of Where Is Your Body? by Mari Matsuda

Child Care Policy And The Welfare Reform Act, Peter R. Pitegoff

Faculty Publications

This article sketches the 1996 Welfare Reform Act's major changes with particular attention to federally subsidized child care for low-income families.

Rethinking Equality In The Global Society, Clark D. Cunningham

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action In Question: A Coherent Theory For Section 15(2), Mark A. Drumbl, John D.R. Craig

Scholarly Articles

Affirmative action programs are constitutionally protected in Canada under section 15(2) of the Charter. This section has received little judicial interpretation and, consequently, no coherent approach to the interpretation of section 15(2) has been developed. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to define the meaning of section 15(2), as affirmative action programs can be used to perpetuate stereotypes and discrimination while being given a blanket endorsement through section 15(2). The authors suggest that section 15(2) does not merely promote substantive equality, as this is the function of section 15(1), but embodies the social justice conception of equality, which allocates social …

Who Is Black Enough For You? An Analysis Of Northwestern University Law School's Struggle Over Minority Faculty Hiring, Leonard M. Baynes

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article considers the factors that should be used in hiring a person of color to a faculty position and raises the following questions: Apart from potential teaching ability and scholarly productivity, should faculty appointments committees look to other criteria for candidates of color? Provided that we can still consider the race and ethnicity of prospective candidates of color at private institutions, should faculty appointments committees be concerned about how closely identified a candidate is to an essentialized conception, for instance, of Black persons? Should a faculty hiring committee focus its efforts to hire African Americans on a Black person …

Outlawing Outcasts: Comparative Perspectives On The Differing Functions Of The Criminal Law Of Slavery In The Americas, Robert J. Cottrol

Cardozo Law Review

This is a commentary on some issues raised by Anthony De V. Phillips's "Doubly Condemned": Adjustments to the Crime and Punishment Regime in the Late Slavery Period in the British Caribbean Colonies and Judith K. Schafer's "Under the Present Mode of Trial, Improper Verdicts are Very Often Given": Criminal Procedure Trials of Slaves in Antebellum Louisiana, both of which appear in this volume. Both discussions highlight the role of criminal law, procedure, and punishment in helping to sustain systems of African and Afro-American chattel slavery in New World societies. They provide interesting contrasts between civil and common law approaches to …

The Rooster's Egg: On The Persistence Of Prejudice, Elise M. Bruhl

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Patricia J. Williams, The Roosters' Egg: On the Persistence of Prejudice

Legal Ethics And Fugitive Slaves: The Anthony Burns Case, Judge Loring, And Abolitionist Attorneys, Paul Finkelman

Cardozo Law Review

Judges and lawyers seek to enforce and uphold the "law" while also proclaiming an interest in an abstraction we call "justice." As we know, there is often a tension between the two. Consequently, serving the law often means not serving justice. Similarly, often a tension exists between a lawyer's duty both to seek a legal remedy to a problem and to act in the best interests of a client. Activist lawyers can have an agenda that is at odds with members of the class they claim to serve. These two problems are complicated by a third. Lawyers and judges have …