Race and Racism: April 2004

[Guest guest]

Race, Racism and the Law April 2004 Volume 6 Number 4 Speaking Truth to Power!! http://academic.udayton.edu/race/miscell/0404Newsletter.html Dear Friends, In 1984, when I attended and Law School, I was the only black student in the first year class. Every where I look, day-in and day-out, a sea of white faces. The stress of law school is significant; the stress of being the only black person, at times became unbearable. At one point, when I had a most difficult day: - a day when I had to listen or argue about affirmative action a hundred times;-a day when my constitutional law professor decided to teach about hate crime and used a situation involving the words "Nigger Bitch" as an example.-a day when the contract professor used a case where a "welfare mother" had furniture repossed and being a former and current "welfare mother" I was positive that all eyes had turned to look at me.-a day when for the first time a case in criminal law mentioned race and you guessed it - it was a black man raping a white woman-a day when . . . so many racialized things happened.A day not much different than my other days - but I suddenly found the sea of whiteness unbearable. I want to get away, but I couldn't, I had a class. I wanted to cry - but where could I get some privacy, some empathy. I remember this day so clearly, because I ended up in a bathroom stall crying my eyes out! Law Schools, for the most part, are a sea of whiteness. For instance, the University of Dayton School of Law is over 85% white even though the application pool for law schools nationally is only 68% white.This sea of whiteness that contributes to the legal profession being more white than medicine. It is a whiteness that is dangerous to our society. This whiteness unnecessarily (and undeservingly) perpetuate power and control in one group. Just recently, the census bureau released information predicting that by the year 2050 we will be a nation of minorities. According to the Census Bureau, in 2050, white non-Latinos will make up 50 percent of the population, with Latinos accounting for 24 percent, African Americans 15 percent and Asian Americans 8 percent. While there are a number of problems with the statistics, for the purpose of this discussion I will accept this often cited mantra. People say it - "A Nation of Minorities" They say it with wonder, with expectation and with some amount of anxiousness and trepidation. News commentator comment on it but no one takes the next step and asks- So what?We will be a nation of minorities. So, What?Are we going to be a nation in which no group has a disproportionate share of wealth and power?Or will we be a de facto apartheid South Africa. Like South Africa, will the wealth and power of a nation be centered in numerical minority? Will the numerical minority become even more oppressive in order to maintain its power and wealth? How will we be a truly represented nation in 2050, if we don't begin to transfer power and wealth now - which brings me back to the whiteness in law school. One place we could start preparing for the future today, is by our law school admission patterns. If law schools continue to be a sea of whiteness, than power and wealth of this society will also continue to be white. The power brokers of tomorrow are the law students of today and right now --The Whiteness is blinding!Vernellia RandallProfessor of LawThe University of DaytonWhat's New!!: Whiteness and White Privilege--Defining "White Privilege"--What White Privilege Sounds Like--The Language of Closet Racism--I'm Not White, I'm Jewish. But I am White--How Irish Became White (A Sermon)--Blacks in the United States and South Africa--How a Drug Becomes Ethnic--Commerce in Cadavers Open Secret--White Dependence on People of Color--Constructing Whiteness--I am an Affirmative Action Baby!--African American Middle Class: The Many Cost of DiscriminationMore...http://academic.udayton.edu/race/whatsnew.htm Race, HealthCare and the Law If 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.race.mail@... Global Racism WANTED: articles and reports about racism, racial discrimination and law. Articles need to be in English and sent electronically. Articles must have complete citationsTest Your Hidden BiasEven though we believe we see and treat people as equals, hidden biases may still influence our perceptions and actions. Social psychologists think stereotypes and prejudice linger in most of us. Created by psychologists at Harvard and the University of Washington, this collection of Hidden Bias Tests (called Implicit Association Tests, or IATs, in the academic world) measure unconscious bias. More. . .Donation Over 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. Any support you can provide will be greatly appreciated. donation. Law Reviews on Race Law Reviews on Race 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. This update includes over 100 articles in the following areas:Specific Racial Group (Article Specifically mentions the group in the title)~African American / Blacks~Asian American~Latina(o) American/ Hispanic ~Native American / Eskimo~International Racial GroupsSpecific Topics*Adoption and Care*Affirmative Action*Criminal Justice (Generally)r*Criminal Justice: Police and Prisons*Education: Generally*Education: Legal*Employment and Labor*Environment and Environmental Justice*Gender Issues: Generally*Health and Health Care*Housing and Land*Human Rights*Indian Law*Internment of Japanese Americans*Language Issues*Law and Lawyers*Miscellaneous*Patent and Trademark*Race Generally*Race: White Privilege*Racism: Cultural & Institutional*Reparations*Sexuality*Slavery*Voting Rights and Political PowerMore...http://academic.udayton.edu/race/LReviews/0404.htmContents Continents ApartThe Whitest Law SchoolsWhat's New!! Law Review ArticlesRace and Health CareGlobal Racism Test Your Hidden Bias Continents Apart Black Liberation in South Africa and the United StatesProfessor M. FredricksonThe victory of Mandela and the African National Congress in the 1994 elections was the culmination of a remarkable series of events, beginning with Mandela?s release from prison in 1990, that has brought an end to legalized white domination in South Africa. After this enormous breakthrough, what useful comparisons can be made between the current situation and future prospects of blacks in the two societies? One possible assessment would celebrate the victory over apartheid in the 1990s as roughly equivalent to the triumph of the American civil rights movement over legalized segregation and de facto disfranchisement 30 years earlier, the operative assumption being that the American precedent was similarly successful. The result in both cases, according to this optimistic evaluation, was an end to official racism and the removal of the principal barriers to the achievement of a color-blind democratic society. From this vantage point, the essential struggles are over, and white racism is, if not quite dead, at least deprived of most of its power. It would be difficult, however, to sell this triumphalist analogy to some of the most acute observers of black-white relations in the United States in the 1990s. A pessimistic view of black progress since the ?50s has taken hold, not only among black intellectuals, but also among some of the most respected white students of American race relations. The eminent sociologist Hacker concluded his bleak portrayal of the condition of African-Americans in 1992 by noting that ?legal slavery may be in the past, but segregation and subordination have been allowed to persist.? He concludes his horrendous account of black deprivation and disillusionment without offering even a glimmer of hope that the situation will improve: ?A huge racial chasm remains, and there are few signs that the coming century will see it closed.? In the light of this growing pessimism about the prospects for racial equality in the United States, a quite different comparative analysis suggests itself. South African blacks, it could be argued, have achieved something that has eluded African-Americans and will probably continue to elude them. Despite the problems that remain, black South Africans have thrown off the shackles of white domination and have achieved genuine self-determination, while African-Americans remain at the mercy of a white majority that remains racist - not in the old-fashioned sense of openly advocating the legal subordination of blacks, but in the new sense of denying the palpable fact that blacks as a group suffer from disadvantages in American society and will continue to do so unless radical action is taken. Continued....http://academic.udayton.edu/race/01race/whiteness01.htm The Whitest Law SchoolsPrologue: I grew up during Jim Crow in Texas. Going on long distance road trips, had a distinct flavor for Blacks during that time and I remember it vividly - the packing enough food for the entire trip (no restaurants), the using the bathroom on the side of the road (no gas station bathrooms), the sleeping in the car on the side of the road (no motels). But my most vivid memory of my road trips in Texas was the sign I read every time we went through Greenville, Texas -The Blackest Land,The Whitest PeopleIn many ways white privilege, that support institutional racism in law schools is really about maintaining the profession as the "The Whitest People". Top Ten Whitest Law Schoolsin the United States Prof Randall: The 2002 application pool was only 68% white.1University of Montana MT95.62University of Maine ME95.33Samford University (Cumberland)AL94.74University of Idaho ID93.75Duquesne UniversityPA93.46University of South Carolina SC93.07Northern Kentucky University (Chase)KY92.98University of Kentucky KY92.79Marquette UniversityWI92.610University of Richmond VA92.4More....academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/LegalEd/Whitest/ race.mail@...(937) 229-3378http://academic.udayton.edu/race/