Afrodescendants, Law, and Race in Latin America

Law and Society research in and about Latin America has been particularly beneficial in elucidating the gap between the ideals of racial equality laws in the region and the actual subordinated status of its racialized subjects. Some of the recurrent themes in the race-related literature have been: the limits of the Latin American emphasis on criminal law to redress discriminatory actions; the limits of multicultural constitutional reform for full political participation; the insufficiency of land reform and recognition of ethnic communal property titles; and the challenges to implementing race conscious public policies such as affirmative action. Especially illuminating have been the surveys of judicial cases that demonstrate the continued judicial resistance to the notion that racial discrimination exists in Latin America simply because its manifestations are deemed to be inconsequential compared to the “real discrimination” of the racially violent United States. Future research projects could be instrumental in disrupting this Latin American judicial attitude of racial innocence that interferes with the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. Emerging research could interrogate the presumption that racial violence does not and has not existed in Latin America, and the social disempowerment of not naming the violence as racial. In short, deconstructing the judicial premise that racial violence is particular to the United States and the defining feature of true racism by which strategic comparisons to Latin America’s presumed non-racial violence situate it as non-discriminatory, all point to a productive area for future Law and Society race-related research

A Dedication

This symposium of the Columbia Journal of Law and Race, Critical Race Theory and Marxism, is dedicated to Keith Aoki, 1955-2011. Keith died an hour after I arrived at his home in Davis, California. One hour and he was gone

Review of Connecticut's Charter School Law and Race to the Top

Bifulco's review of this report finds that it ignores relevant research and offers no evidence to support its claim that expanding charters would increase low-income student achievement

In Solidarity

This edition of Next Page is a departure from our usual question and answer format with a featured campus reader. Instead, we asked speakers who participated in the College’s recent Student Solidarity Rally (March 1, 2017) to recommend readings that might further our understanding of the topics on which they spoke

Shelby County v. Holder - Brief Contextualized

This paper begins with three major factors that set the stage for Shelby: first, a history of the VRA; second, an overview of Northwest Austin with a focus on how it led directly to Shelby; and finally, Shelby County’s motivations for bringing the suit. An examination of racial demographics compared to statistics on voter registration and minority officeholders in Alabama and Louisiana—two states originally subject to preclearance—follows in light of the Court’s claims on the matter. A conclusion will take a brief look at laws passed since Shelby with an eye towards a future critique. [excerpt

Fisher v. UT Austin - Contextualized Brief

Contextualization of the 2013 Supreme Court case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, in which Abigail Fisher was denied admission. This paper also analyzes past Court cases dealing with affirmative action in the admissions process