Race and Racism - March 2004

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Race, Racism and the Law March 2004Speaking Truth to Power!! Volume 6 Number 3 Dear Friends, Welcome to my sixth year of doing this update! My website is a labor of love, hope and persistence. As you may have notice I have a new format (Thank you technology!). I also plan to "focus" the updates and to have guest editorials. If you have an issue you would like a "legal" update on or please let me know:race.mail@...This month the update focuses on discrimination in legal education. We struggle against institutional and systemic racism. And it seems that the majority always find a way to maintain power and privilege. For instance, after winning a battle in the Supreme Court in Grutter, reaffirming the importance of diversity, many law schools have admission policies and practices that will make the legal profession even more white than it is. What is particularly frustating is that even "well meaning liberals", "people of goodwill", are justifying these practices. Whatever, your occupation or issue you should find the resegregation of the legal profession particularly disturbing. Power in this country is centered in money and law. Lawyers not only make law and interpert law; they are the gatekeepers to access to justice. Furthermore, lawyers are over represented in the center of power: congress and in corporations. In our struggle for social justice, we must have proportional representation of people of color as lawyers and judges. That can't happen as long as law schools use policies and practices that discriminate against Blacks, Latino(a)s, Asians and Indians. Read Listen up! and demand accountability of your local, state law school or alma mater! Vernellia Randall Professor of Law The University of DaytonWhat's New!!The Struggle for Access to Law Schools Defending the Use of Quotas in Law Schools Does the LSAT Magnify Racial Differences? The American Bar Association Academic Racism Selected Bibliography on LSAT and Minority Admissions Law School Admission Factors Law School Admission CouncilLSAC Statement of Good Admission and Financial Aid Practices LSAC National Longitutional Bar Passage Study LSAC Cautionary Policies re Use of LSAT Law School Admission Practices and Use of the LSAT LSAT - Good - But not That Good LSAC Scorebands EncoreWhy Race Matters?: A Call to Disaggregate Health Status and Health Care Data by Race Racial Profiling in Health Care Institutional Racism in US Health Care US Violations of Human Rights Related to Race and Health Care More... Law Reviews on Race and Racism Law Reviews on Race and Racism is a searchable database of law review articles on race, health and other topics of interest to the anti-racism activist. The database is updated weekly. The March update includes over 80 articles in the following areas:Racial GroupAfrican/ Black Americans Native American / Eskimo Topic (Generally applicable to all racial groups)Adoption and CareChildren and TeenagersAffirmative ActionChildren and TeenagersChurch and ReligionCivil Justice: GenerallyCivil RightsCriminal Justice (Generally)Criminal Justice: Racial ProfilingEconomics: EconomicEconomics: GenerallyEconomics: TaxationEducationEducation: LegalEmployment and LaborEnvironment and Environmental JusticeHealth and Health CareHuman RightsImmigrationIndian LawInternational IssuesInternment of Japanese AmericansJustice: GenerallyLaw and LawyersMiscellaneousRacism: Cultural and InstitutionalSexualitySlaverySovereigntyVoting Rights and Political Power More... Race, Health Care and the LawIf you work in the area of health care, Health policy or health law and would like to be a part of an online discussion/information groupon "Race, HealthCare and the Law, contact me. Vienna Declaration and Program of ActionA major development in the ability of Africans and African Descendants to independently organize for the World Conference Againt Racism in Durban was the international African and African Descendants Conference [("AADC")] held in Vienna, Austria in April, 2001. This historic conference, attended by representatives covering most of the Black World, was convened by Africans and African Descendants in a concerted effort to refute the efforts at Strasbourg and the attempts by the Western European countries to subvert the work and unity of the Africans and African Descendants manifesting itself in the international and regional preparatory meetings. The Vienna Conference produced a groundbreaking declaration which eloquently articulated and delineated many key positions which would be read and advocated by African and African Descendants throughout the WCAR process. Without question the Vienna Declaration's unique and unadulterated, sharpened, and keenly intellectual expression of the key issues and programmes of action for Africans and African Descendants was used as guidance by the Drafting Committee of the AADC and would inform the content of many of the position papers of the AADC.The Declaration is available online. In addition the Declaration has been published in 8 Washington and Lee Race and Ethnic Ancestry Law Journal 7 (Spring, 2002). If you would like a reprinted copy of the Washington & Lee publication, please send $ 3.00 to Professor Vernellia Randall, The University of Dayton School of Law, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-2772. Global RacismWANTED: articles and reports about racism, racial discrimination and law. Articles need to be in English and sent electronically. Articles must have complete citations. DonationOver the last six years, I have managed this website entirely by myself. It has grown significantly, for instance I have over 1500 pages that need to be reviewed and updated. I would like to hire a part time research assistant. I need to raise approximately $5000. Can you help? If so you can make a donation through Paypal. Contents Listen Up!!What's New!! Law Reviews on RacismVienna Declaration Join Race and Health CareGlobal Racism ArticlesListen Up!!If you are a Black, Hispanic, Asian or Indian law school applicant who has been denied admission - Listen up! You may have been discriminated against based on your race. It is not intentional, in your face, "we don?t want Blacks" in our law school, kind of discrimination. No, it is that hard to understand and even harder to eliminate institutional racism. Institutional racism occurs where an institution adopts a policy, practice, or procedure that appears neutral on its face but has a disproportionately negative impact on a racial or ethnic minority group. In the case of law schools, the discriminatory practice is the misuse of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) in the admission process. Specifically, its estimated that at least 90% of law schools, have admission practices that presumptively deny applicants based on how they fall on a grid formulated around LSAT and Undergraduate Grade Point average (UGPA). It is this misuse of the LSAT that has a discriminatory impact.For example, based on a LSAT cut-off of 145, over 60% of black applicants will be presumptively denied, but only 20% of white applicants will be "presumptively denied." While "presumptive" denial need not be absolute, for some schools less than .5 % of the applicants in the "presumptive deny" category are subsequently admitted. This misuse of LSAT is devastating to all minorities, particularly Blacks and Latinos. For instance, using LSAT cuts in half the number of Black and Puerto Rican students who would be admitted based on their performance in college, such as their Undergraduate Grade Point Average (UGPA). Disturbingly, law schools know that the LSAT is not capable of making fine distinctions among candidates. According to, Philip Shelton, the president of Law School Admission Council (LSAC), the LSAT is "Good but not that good." Mr. Shelton has said that if students with an LSAT of 145 and 144 "took the test a dozen more times [LSAC would ] . . .have no idea which student would end up with the higher average score". According to LSAC, to be 95% certain that a single score is the true representation of an applicant?s skills, you would need a 14 point spread. In plain English, an applicant who gets a score of 144 could have skills somewhere in the range of 137 to 151. FN It is important to note that this is not an issue of ability to perform successfully in law school. Students at all range of the LSAT continuum are successful law students, law graduates and attorneys. In fact, in my own school, before we changed our admission grid, over 48% of our African American graduates in the last five years have had LSAT below 145.Why then are law schools using presumptive grids?According to some law school deans, it is the pressure to increase ranking in the US News & World Report. If so, it is an ineffective method since LSAT scores only account for 12% of a law school?s ranking score.Another asserted reason is increasing first time bar passage. Studies show that over 70-90% of all graduates pass the bar within 2-3 retakes. Among those examiners of color who eventually passed, between 94 and 97 percent passed after one or two attempts and 99 percent passed by the third attempt. Evenso, there are other more effective ways to increase bar passage without limiting opportunity to attend law school - such as teaching accepted students what they need to know to pass the bar. Some faculty assert that reading all the files is onerous and time consuming - but we get paid good money to do a job that does not have many demands. Should faculty limit access and opportunity for racial and ethnic minorities because we are unwilling to spend time to do our job? Furthermore, as long as we invite people to apply, shouldn?t they all get the same careful consideration? Whatever the reason law schools choose to implement LSAT ?presumptive deny? practices, it is completely unacceptable to have policies and practices that effectively discriminate against Blacks, Latinos, Asian, and Indians. For one reason, minorities are seriously underrepresented in the legal profession. For instance, only 4% of the nation?s lawyers are Black even though Blacks represent 13% of the population of the United States . This lack of representation has far ranging effects including limited access to power. Ever notice how many of the power brokers in the United States are lawyers?. Perhaps a more significant effect is ever growing distrust of the legal system by racial minorities, in significant part, because of the lack of lawyers and judges that look like them. The misuse of the LSAT is not just an example of institutional racism, it is also an example of systemic racism because many different institutions contribute to the misuse of the LSAT. A change in any one of the institutions in the system could effect a positive change Continuedrace.mail@...http://academic.udayton.edu/race/