Law and Race Commons^™

Unexplainable On Grounds Other Than Race: The Inversion Of Privilege And Subordination In Equal Protection Jurisprudence, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

In this article, Professor Darren Hutchinson contributes to the debate over the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause by arguing that the Supreme Court has inverted its purpose and effect. Professor Hutchinson contends that the Court, in its judicial capacity, provides protection and judicial solicitude for privileged and powerful groups in our country, while at the same time requires traditionally subordinated and oppressed groups to utilize the political process to seek redress for acts of oppression. According to Professor Hutchinson, this process allows social structures of oppression and subordination to remain intact.

First, Professor Hutchinson examines the various …

Dissecting Axes Of Subordination: The Need For A Structural Analysis, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

This Essay addresses two important issues related to the task of unveiling and challenging the institutional nature of anti-gay bias. In Part II, this Essay explains in greater detail how a structural analysis of judicial bias can lead to a richer understanding of subordination by uncovering the subtle, hidden, and ideological roots and manifestations of oppression. Part III argues that law and sexuality scholars must conduct a multidimensional reading of judicial heterosexism- that is, in order to appreciate fully the structural dimensions of judicial bias against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals, we must recognize that this bias exists as …

Progressive Race Blindness: Individual Identity, Group Politics, And Reform, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

This Article responds to the advocates of "progressive race blindness" with several critiques of their central claims. Part I examines the contours of progressive race blindness in greater detail, giving centrality to the emergence of this theory in legal scholarship. Part I sets forth the common themes articulated in progressive race blindness arguments and highlights important differences among its proponents. Part II isolates several problems with the progressive race blindness literature and demonstrates that these weaknesses make the literature unhelpful as a political or legal theory and even dangerous to the cause of antiracism. Part III offers suggestions for future …

Identity Crisis: "Intersectionality," "Multidimensionality," And The Development Of An Adequate Theory Of Subordination, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

This Article arises out of the intersectionality and post-intersectionality literature and makes a case against the essentialist considerations that informed HRC's endorsement of D'Amato. Part I discusses the pitfalls that occur when scholars and activists engage in essentialist politics and treat identities and forms of subordination as conflicting forces. Part II examines how essentialism negatively affects legal theory in the equality context. Part III considers the historical motivation for and the efficacy of the "intersectionality" response to the problem of essentialism. Part III also extensively analyzes the "multidimensional" critiques of essentialism offered by the most recent school of thought in …

Beyond The Rhetoric Of Dirty Laundry: Examining The Value Of Internal Criticism Within Progressive Social Movements And Oppressed Communities, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

Several historical reasons explain opposition to the airing of internal criticism by scholars and activists within progressive social movements and by members of subordinate communities. Opponents often contend that such criticism might reinforce negative stereotypes of subordinate individuals and that reactionary movements and activists might appropriate and misuse negative portrayals of the oppressed. A related fear holds that internal criticism will dismantle political unity within oppressed communities and progressive social movements, thereby forestalling social change. While these concerns provide some context for understanding the resistance to internal criticism within progressive social movements, I argue in this essay that they do …

Gay Rights For Gay Whites: Race, Sexual Identity, And Equal Protection Discourse, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

My argument proceeds in four parts. Part I situates my discussion of the synergistic relationship among race, class, gender, and sexuality within a broader body of research on the "intersectionality'' of systems of oppression and of identity categories. Part I then examines how my scholarship attempts to advance this literature both substantively and conceptually. Part II expounds my claim that the comparative and essentialist treatment of race and sexuality within pro-gay and lesbian theory and politics marginalizes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans­gendered persons of color and constructs and reinforces the notion that the gay and lesbian community is uniformly white …

In The Wake Of Hopwood: An Update On Affirmative Action In The Education Arena, Carla Pratt

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Centering The Immigrant In The Inter/National Imagination, Robert S. Chang, Keith Aoki

Faculty Articles

In this Article, Professors Chang and Aoki examine the relationship between the immigrant and the nation in the complicated racial terrain known as the United States. Special attention is paid to the border which contains and configures the local, the national and the international. They criticize the contradictory impulse that has led to borders becoming increasingly porous to the flows of information, goods and capital while simultaneously constricting when it comes to the movement of certain persons, particularly those of Asian and Latinalo ancestry. The authors examine Monterey Park, California, as one site where there has been a large influx …

Symbol And Substance In The Minority Professoriat's Future, Henry Mcgee

Faculty Articles

Professor McGee addresses the issues faced by minority professors. In an environment that is mostly white, the minority professor is confronted with problems simply by being present on campus. The minority professor also faces significant dilemmas with respect to his/her own community. As increasing numbers of minorities fall farther below the national socio-economic and social indicators, and racial isolation deepens and becomes more pervasive, the minority law professor becomes estranged from his/her own community.

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.

Gentrification And The Law: Combatting Urban Displacement, Henry Mcgee, Donald C. Bryant Jr.

Faculty Articles

This article stresses a "push" perspective in its examination of how these legally structured forces have stimulated the return of the gentry to the central urban areas of the United States.

Race, Class, And The Contradictions Of Affirmative Action, Henry Mcgee, Alan Freeman, Derrick A. Bell

Faculty Articles

A panel discussion on "Race, Class, and the Contradictions of Affirmative Action" was held as a part of the Third Annual Conference on Critical Legal Studies on November 10, 1979. Professor Alan Freeman, of the University of Minnesota Law School, convened the panel by setting forth the questions to be discussed and critiquing existing theories that have been offered to address the topic. The questions set forth for the panel was whether racism, although a historically separate and identifiable form of oppression, can be approached and remedied in any substantial way without simultaneously confronting the class structure in general. Can …

Illusion And Contradiction In The Quest For A Desegregated Metropolis, Henry Mcgee

Faculty Articles

A decade of litigation in which the central issue of discrimination essentially was uncontested thus far has failed to disestablish racial segregation or produce desperately needed low-income housing for Chicago blacks. Recently, the unconcluded litigation has produced a unanimous United States Supreme Court decision exposing suburban racial sanctuaries to the possibility of integrated public housing units. Although the first-named plaintiff in the suit, Dorothy Gautreaux, did not survive the decision, the extent of her posthumous triumph is the central theme of this article. Although Gautreaux superficially indicates that a federal judge has the power to desegregate federally subsidized housing and …

Power(Lessness) And Dispersion: Comments On Chester Mcguire's The Urban Development Act Of 1974, Community Development Funds And Black Economic Problems, Henry Mcgee

Faculty Articles

Professor McGee discusses Chester McGuire's comprehensive, provocative and good-humored assessment of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (HCDA). McGuire suggests both ominous and benign trends in the shift of political power and allocation of material resources in the United States. In analyzing the McGuire’s assessment of the HCDA, Professor McGee addresses how the act affects minority groups, particularly Black Americans.

Blacks, Due Process And Efficiency In The Clash Of Values As The Supreme Court Moves To The Right, Henry Mcgee

Faculty Articles

Professor McGee examines the move by the Supreme Court to limit rights for minority defendants. Led by its law enforcement-oriented Chief Justice, an emerging majority of the Court has managed to reverse or seriously abridge precedents - both recent and time-honored - which ensured some fairness for minority defendants. Professor McGee addresses the implications of these decisions, and how they have affected due process for Black defendants.

Minority Students In Law School: Black Lawyers And The Struggle For Racial Justice In The American Social Order, Henry Mcgee

Faculty Articles

Professor McGee addresses the endeavor of Black Americans--their struggle against discrimination and segregation--and their entry into law school and the legal profession. The emerging cadre of Black law students represents the newest source of leadership in the struggle for Black liberation. They are part of a surging tide of blackness that may yet save the nation from the decay and death of racism. As such they command attention and respect.

Urban Renewal In The Crucible Of Judicial Review, Henry Mcgee

Faculty Articles

An agency is not an island entire of itself. It is one of the many rooms in the magnificent mansion of the law. The very subordination of the agency to judicial jurisdiction is intended to proclaim the premise that each agency is to be brought into harmony with the totality of the law; the law as it is found in the statute at hand, the statute book at large, the principles and conceptions of the "common law," and the ultimate guarantees associated with the Constitution.