Law and Race Commons^™

"We Are An Equal Opportunity Employer": Diversity Doublespeak, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

There are too few discussions about race and race relations among corporate managers and directors. The rhetoric used in these infrequent discussions revolves around the idea of diversity in the workplace. In recent years, when speaking about employees and race issues, corporate actors have become curiously silent about discrimination and racism. This Article provides several examples of the rhetorical devices used by corporate spokespersons that ignore persisting problems with discrimination and racism by focusing solely on diversity efforts. Diversity rhetoric allows corporate managers to avoid responsibility for enduring discrimination in the workplace. Diversity efforts, without antidiscrimination efforts, increase the likelihood …

Explaining Grutter V. Bollinger, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparisons Between Enron And Other Types Of Corporate Misconduct: Compliance With Law And Ethical Decision Making As The Best Form Of Public Relations, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

One of the most important lessons that Enron offers is that sometimes managers lie and boards fail to do their jobs. Enron’s most valuable lessons relate to corporate governance, financial disclosure, accounting practices, and the management of pension funds. One of the most illuminating lessons that Enron offers, however, may be found in the reaction of jurists, legal scholars, the media, corporate professionals, elected officials, and the investing public to the Enron collapse. The general sense of public outrage is as large as the huge financial loss suffered by investors and employees.

There is a lesson to be derived …

Racial Discrimination And The Relationship Between The Directorial Duty Of Care And Corporate Disclosure, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Two corporate employers paid settlements of seismic proportions to minority employees alleging race discrimination in recent years. In 1996, Texaco settled a class action alleging race discrimination for $176 million, and in 2000, Coca-Cola settled race discrimination litigation for $192.5 million. The terms of both settlements required the insertion of outside auditors into typically internal and private corporate governance decisions, and the creation of governance processes designed to investigate and monitor compliance with laws prohibiting race discrimination. In this article I conclude that the settlements mandate managerial and directorial conduct that should have been undertaken when the charges of …

Corporate Governance As Corporate Social Responsibility: Empathy And Race Discrimination, Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

This Essay is one of a series of articles I have written that examines persistent racial discrimination in large, publicly held corporations. In spite of legislation prohibiting discrimination, employees of color have alleged that they have been the victims of discriminatory employment practices and racial harassment in the workplaces governed by large companies. Antidiscrimination law has not remedied the racially toxic corporate cultures of many of these companies. Because Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act has no “generalized code of workplace civility,” it does little to ameliorate workplace racial harassment. For this reason, a new approach is required …

Contract Rights And Civil Rights, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Rich Kids, Poor Kids, And The Single-Sex Education Debate, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Over the past decade, the subject of publicly supported, single-sex education has generated considerable debate in legal and policy circles. Since 1996, much of that debate has centered around the Supreme Court's decision in the Virginia Military Institute case and how that case intersects with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. In VMI, Justice Ginsburg, speaking for the Court, stated that gender classifications must have "an exceedingly persuasive justification" in order to pass muster under the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause. That decision has become a key factor in recent efforts by school districts to establish …

Book Review Of But For Birmingham: The Local And National Movements In The Civil Rights Struggle, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, And School Desegregation In Houston, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitration: Using Title Vii Disparate Impact Analysis To Invalidate Employment Contracts That Discriminate, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

On May 20, 1996, three women filed a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against the Wall Street investment firm Smith Barney. Later joined by twenty additional women, the plaintiffs alleged that Smith Barney failed to hire and promote women, created a hostile work environment, and discriminated on the basis of pregnancy and marital status. The lawsuit quickly gained widespread publicity, most notably for its accusation that the former manager of the Garden City, New York, branch had established a fraternity-like "boom-boom room" in the office basement where female employees were either excluded or harassed if allowed to enter. On …

Book Review Of Desegregating Texas Schools: Eisenhower, Shivers, And The Crisis At Mansfield High, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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.

Geographically Sexual?: Advancing Lesbian And Gay Interests Through Proportional Representation, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In the 1993 New York City School Board elections, a system of proportional representation allowed lesbians and gay men to elect representatives of their choice. In response to the School Board's plan to introduce the Children of the Rainbow Curriculum, the New York City chapter of the Christian Coalition, an organization of the Christian Right, began an opposition campaign with the slogan "No Sodom on the Hudson" that pitted parents of color against so-called “rich white gays.” Having succeeded in forcing the school chancellor's resignation, the Christian Coalition formulated a plan for the takeover of all New York City …

When Judges Are Gatekeepers: Democracy, Morality, Status, And Empathy In Duty Decisions (Help From Ordinary Citizens), Cheryl L. Wade

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Imagine that you are eighteen and you have just graduated from high school. Even though you have no cognitive disability and have spent twelve years of your life attending public schools, you are functionally illiterate. If your predicament was caused by negligent educators, your action for educational malpractice would be called a "failure to educate" case and it would be denied.

Or, imagine that you enter a public school kindergarten class and you are examined by the school's psychologist. On the basis of a verbal intelligence test, the psychologist concludes that you are mentally retarded. In reality, you have …

The Ties That Bind: An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of Gender, Ethnicity, And The Practice Of Law, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Over the past decade, fueled in part by Carol Gilligan's controversial book, In a Different Voice, both feminists and scholars of color have critically examined the law from the "outsiders'" perspective. Stretching methodological bounds, this interrelated body of scholarship has utilized narrative form to question the gender and racial implications of social practices and legal rules and to demonstrate the useful purpose that stories serve as a means of including marginalized groups in law's evolution and reform. Women scholars of color have carved out a particular role in this debate, criticizing feminism's categorical conceptualization of "woman." They have advanced …

Overcoming "Stigmas": Lesbian And Gay Districts And Black Electoral Empowerment, Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In the United States, historically, members of racial and sexual minority groups have been prevented from effectively participating in governmental decisionmaking because the political districting system denies them adequate representation in the political process. Following the 1990 census, blacks, in particular, saw significant gains in their political representation as a result of redistricting, only to suffer a sharp reduction of their voting rights with the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in the Shaw and Miller cases. Whereas voting rights litigation once explored ways to prevent minority vote dilution, today's jurisprudence focuses on the ramifications of the "stigma" faced by blacks …

Queer Intersectionality And The Failure Of Recent Lesbian And Gay "Victories", Darren Rosenblum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Amidst the juridical heterosexism of our legal system, the few successful lesbian and gay cases stand out as brilliant, hopeful harbingers of the future. With good cause, lesbian and gay people have hailed state cases that indicate Bowers v. Hardwick has not contaminated all American courts. Although termed "victories" for the lesbian and gay community, several recent New York cases exclude many queer legal needs. Four cases, Braschi v. Stahl Assoc., In the Matter of the Adoption of Evan, M.A.B. v. R.B. and Thomas S. v. Robin Y., embody the law's progress on lesbian and gay issues. This essay …

The Rhetoric Of Moderation: Desegregating The South During The Decade After Brown, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Quest For Freedom In The Post-Brown South: Desegregation And White Self-Interest, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Race, Law, And American History, 1700-1990, Davison M. Douglas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Radical Intent, Michael A. Simons

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Much of the recent debate regarding constitutional interpretation has focused on the relevance of the Framers' intent. Attorney General Edwin Meese III has urged judges to "resurrect the original meaning of constitutional provisions." In contrast, Justice William Brennan has argued that courts should adapt the Constitution to "cope with current problems and current needs." A key disagreement involves whether the Bill of Rights protects citizens against state as well as federal government abuses. Some scholars have called for a rollback of Supreme Court decisions that incorporate provisions of the Bill of Rights in the fourteenth amendment, arguing that these …

Title Vi And The Intent/Impact Debate: A Critical Look At "Coextensiveness", Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted as part of a larger package of federal legislation aimed at redressing the wrongs of past discrimination and at preventing future transgressions against members of identified groups—most notably racial minorities. This title of the Act—prohibiting discrimination based upon race, color, or national origin in federally assisted programs or activities—has been relied upon by private individuals and administrative agencies to remedy discrimination in education, employment, housing, and more recently in health care and other municipal services. As a discrimination statute, Title VI draws its congressional enactment authority from section …

The O’Meara Case And Constitutional Requirements Of State Anti-Discrimination Housing Laws, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Discrimination In State University Housing Programs - Policy And Constitutional Consideration, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

This paper examines several of the questions surrounding state universities’ relationships with local landlords who employ discriminatory practices. These questions include the privilege of state universities to enforce a policy of nondiscrimination and the prohibition against state universities placing students into segregated housing.