Are We Really Racing to the Top or Leaving Behind the Bottom? Challenging Conventional Wisdom and Dismantling Institutional Repression

This Article does not dispute that racial integration and socioeconomic integration are valuable tools for promoting equality and democratic values. Indeed, as noted herein, racial and socioeconomic integration are laudable goals that further promote civic democracy, racial acceptance, and a sense of interrelatedness necessary to combat racism for a healthier, more inclusive society. Where the seeds of integration are possible and the environment for integration exists, it should be vigorously pursued. However, where entrenched racial segregation persists, or where white resistance remains truculent, other alternatives are needed and are needed now if generations of students are no longer to be relegated to the streets, death, or the prison industrial complex. Moreover, simply seeking white or middle-income students in the classroom is not a substitute for dismantling the devastating policies targeted to students of color that systematically repress them even in integrated learning environments. Further, integrated classrooms are no substitute for the dynamic teaching and learning that is needed, nor is that tactic a guarantee of the other benefits middle-income students typically enjoy outside the classroom, which can impact educational performance but which nonetheless can be replicated through mentoring and holistic, comprehensive education reform in high- poverty schools. Today, a new, altruistic, and dedicated character of well- apprenticed educator-mentors with cultural competence to comprehend and leverage racial and cultural competencies that transcend race, class, and color to embrace the individual intellectual, emotional, and psychological well being of students is needed. This new cadre of teachers, leaders, mentors, and community partners, along with parents and families, must redefine for children from the ground up a new self-empowerment, high expectations, and high commitment that brings out the best talents, interests, and abilities of students, regardless of where they are schooled. Our nation‘s schools are in need of teachers and leaders who continually promote a school culture of improving excellence and proven self worth. Accordingly, this Article is a clarion call for reforms that include but also extend beyond integration. It is not a call to abandon the rights reform agenda of the Brown era. Reforms should use that agenda‘s arsenal to eradicate harmful, invidious, and nefarious educational policies that hinder excellence in developing students‘ full potential in society. This includes retaining a unique type of teacher quality re- conceptualized for students of color where student engagement, cognitive inquiry, skills acquisition, and academic success for students in high-poverty, minority schools can flourish

Awakening An Empire of Liberty: Exploring The Roots of Socratic Inquiry and Political Nihilism In American Democracy

This book review timely examines Cornel West’s latest sequel to his 1992 best seller, Race Matters. In Democracy Matters, West unflinchingly examines the waning of democratic energies and nihilistic practices of private and public sector in our present age of democracy. This review takes a critical examination of the logic underpinning West’s arguments, his nomenclature of various nihilism plaguing our society, the sometimes clumsy employment of literary devices and his thesis regarding the ‘niggerization’ of America after 9/11 that can serve as a basis for unifying collective action against imperialism. West makes a compelling argument that the public needs to be heard more and awakened by plain speaking Socratic questioning, if it is to become an informed citizenry, or as Ancient Greeks called it, “paidea”. This is necessary in order for the perennial battle between empire and democracy—that reaches from Athens to America—to restore the proper balance in our democratic republic from tyranny and expansive imperialism. Otherwise, who is to say that the American empire of liberty will not tumble as a result of over-extended imperialism as was the case with Roman, Ottoman, Soviet and British empires

Towards an Establishment Clause Theory of Race-Based Allocation after Grutter: Administering Race-Conscious Financial Aid

The novel application of the Establishment Clause doctrine by way of analogy to race0based financial aid after Grutter and Grats, while not identical, speaks to real issue of neutrality that is implicit in the debate of administering race-based scholarships that should be truthfully acknowledged. There is no concern about improper university indoctrination of race as the Grutter court has already established race-based diversity as worthy of a compelling state interest. Moreover, there is no concern that a college or university would establish an imprimatur on race-based scholarships merely or solely because it identifies potential candidates meeting specified eligibility criteria which have been established not by the university, but by private donors. Although on its face such funds are not neutral to race in the same way funds were facially neutral to religion in Zelman, it is clear that the private choices of donors, like parents, provide a theoretical basis to “immunize” universities from liability. In today’s day and age, it is exceedingly difficult to justify race-based/race-exclusive scholarships, particularly in light of the Bollinger cases. Conversely, race-based aid is the most effective means to achieve underrepresented racial diversity of Native Americans, native Blacks and non-white Latinos. These diametrically opposed and unyielding realities will mean that well intentioned universities will now have to code aid to correlate to racial characteristics such as sickle cell anemia in order to avoid frustrating its institutional mission-driven diversity they have come to value. Race-based aid should be distinguished for a number of doctrinal and policy reasons from admissions. If not, form will triumph over substance in the allocation of financial aid to racial minorities through disguised and contrived correlations that only reflect the enduring significance of race

Still Using the Wrong Yardstick: Measuring Quality by the Proxies of Bias, Conformity, and Rumor

It is well overdue to confront the three main ill-advised measurements that perpetuate persistent discrimination in legal academia: bias, conformity, and rumor. When proxies for quality are measured by benchmarks of innuendo, it does a disservice to the legal academy, the individual faculty, the student body, and the legal profession that is shaped by that culture and set of practices. Furthermore, what is valued as noteworthy contributions to service, teaching, and scholarship remains a rigged and biased system of evaluation that is detrimental to the educational process. Finally, conformity to the majority may also operate as a disservice by marginalizing divergent voices in a way that is harmful to academic freedom and the intellectual robustness of the academy. When non-conformity is admirable in raising student awareness or introducing alternative effective models of pedagogy or perspective, it should be rewarded rather than penalized. Yet penalization is too often precisely what happens, and many in legal academia are caught in a perfect storm trifecta of bias, rumor, and the sanctions imposed for non-conformity. The machinery of maligning rumor, once initiated, is difficult to cease or reverse course. How much of one’s reputation lies in the hands of close friends in a close-knit, so-called “old buddy” network, in the criticism of avowed colleagues or students with an axe to grind, or in institutional affiliation is quite disturbing, and even more so when it indelibly shapes decisions of appointment, tenure, promotion, retention, recognition, and pedagogy. Rumor is processed as truth—spread, repeated, perpetuated, and never questioned

Promise Zones, Poverty, and the Future of Public Schools: Confronting the Challenges of Socioeconomic Integration & School Culture in High-Poverty Schools

Article published in the Michigan State Law Review

Multiracial Identity, Monoracial Authenticity & Racial Privacy: Towards an Adequate Theory of Mulitracial Resistance

This Article is divided into five parts. Part I briefly places the significance of the Supreme Court\u27s affirmative action ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger in context, particularly the implications of its recommended twenty-five year timeframe in recognizing racial diversity. Part II examines the dangerous consequences of implicit assumptions underlying the RPI. More specifically, I investigate the potential ramifications the RPI would have had upon multiple sectors of our society, including healthcare, education, and law enforcement. In the process, I attempt to demonstrate that the concept of racial privacy is a strategic misnomer intended not to protect one\u27s privacy, but rather to privatize race away from the accountability of governmental institutions. Part III discusses multiracial identity and the hierarchy of racial classifications. I examine why multiracial classification advocates conceptually support the RPI but nonetheless remain skeptical of its ability to render racial distinctions meaningless. In Part IV I attempt to illustrate through personal narrative why multiracial identity is not necessarily inconsistent with a regime of self-identified monoracial classification. In addition, I discuss precisely why we should continue to repudiate colorblind initiatives such as Connerly\u27s RPI. Part V addresses the more general difficulties posed by racial classifications, including objections raised by progressive colorblind theorists. In this regard, I attempt to unpack the relationship between racial identity and movements for racial justice, giving some attention to the notion of political race recently articulated by Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres. Ultimately, I hope to offer critical considerations for an effective stratagem, and perhaps, a better fate for positive race conscious remedies in the twenty-five years to come

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Examen Final

Resolve