Beyond Title VII: Rethinking Race, Ex-Offender Status, and Employment Discrimination in the Information Age

More than sixty-five million people in the United States—more than one in four adults—have had some involvement with the criminal justice system that will appear on a criminal history report. A rapidly expanding, for-profit industry has developed to collect these records and compile them into electronic databases, offering employers an inexpensive and readily accessible means of screening prospective employees. Nine out of ten employers now inquire into the criminal history of job candidates, systematically denying individuals with a criminal record any opportunity to gain work experience or build their job qualifications. This is so despite the fact that many individuals with criminal records have never been convicted of a crime, as one-third of felony arrests never result in conviction. And criminal records databases routinely contain significant errors, including false positive identifications and sealed or expunged information. The negative impact of employers’ reliance on criminal records databases falls most heavily on Black and Latino populations, as studies show that the stigma of having a criminal record is significantly more damaging for racial minorities than for Whites. This criminal record “penalty” limits profoundly the chance of achieving gainful employment, creating new and vexing problems for regulators, employers, and minorities with criminal records. Our existing regulatory apparatus, which is grounded in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, is ill-equipped to resolve this emerging dilemma because it fails to address systematic information failures and the problem of stigma. This Article, therefore, proposes a new framework drawn from core aspects of anti-discrimination laws that govern health law, notably the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. These laws were designed to regulate the flow of information that may form the basis of an adverse employment decision, seeking to prevent discrimination preemptively. More fundamentally, they conceptualize discrimination through the lens of social stigma, which is critical to understanding and prophylactically curbing the particular discrimination that results from dual criminal record and minority status. This health law framework attends to the interests of minorities with criminal records, allows for more robust enforcement of existing laws, and enables employers to make appropriate and equitable hiring decisions, without engaging in invidious discrimination or contributing to the establishment of a new, and potentially enduring, underclass

Foreword: Critical Race Theory and Empirical Methods Conference

Everyone seems to be talking about race. From the protests that erupted in cities across the country over the failure of grand juries in Missouri and New York to indict police officers in the killing of two unarmed black men, to the racially charged statements made by the owners of professional sports teams; and the college fraternity members captured on film singing a racist lynching song; race exploded into the nation’s collective consciousness. Even the Starbucks Coffee chain’s recent “Race Together” campaign, intended to promote discussion about race, sparked a controversy and was quickly withdrawn. These and other events have propelled race to the top of the national media and policy agendas and made it the topic of dinner table and water cooler conversations throughout the United States. Still, broad disagreement remains, particularly between whites and racial minorities, over what these events mean with respect to contemporary race relations

When a Wrongful Birth Claim May Not Be Wrong: Race, Inequality, and the Cost of Blackness

The year 2017 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision, in which a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Today, when we consider interracial loving, we tend to envision romantic relationships. What is often overlooked, however, is the relationship between parent and child: among the most intimate of relationships. A primary reason for this oversight may be that we do not often conceptualize the parent and child relationship as an interracial space. Indeed, although most people select their romantic partners, few are afforded the opportunity to select their children outside of the contexts of adoption and assisted reproductive technology (ART). While there has been debate over the years about transracial adoptions, there has been little controversy surrounding race selection in ART. This may be due to the fact that within the ART sphere, race, particularly the presumption of race concordance between parents and their children, is seen as neutral and natural: a biological imperative. This assumption and the race selection that occurs in ART are rarely questioned or interrogated. This Essay disrupts these assumptions by using a recent case, Cramblett v. Midwest Sperm Bank, LLC as a point of departure for examining the meaning and operation of race in the United States

All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave

In 1982, African American feminists, writers, and educators Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith co-edited a foundational volume of essays designed to map a program for African American women’s studies and research on issues ranging from racial bias and sexism, to homophobia entitled: “All the Women Are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave.” We reflected on that volume when we accepted the Fordham Law Review’s invitation to take part in its Online symposium honoring 100 years of women at Fordham Law School

Scaling land and water technologies in Tanzania: Opportunities, challenges and policy implications

The scaling of land and water technologies has widely increased across different parts of the world; and is recognized as important for ecological systems. These technologies contribute to sustainable management of watersheds on which agriculture, food production and rural livelihoods for most developing communities depend upon. There are ongoing efforts designed to halt land degradation in the Western Usambara which have arisen from pressure on land resources mainly caused by demographic growth, deforestation and the abandoning of the traditional regenerative land use and farming systems. Socio-cultural and economic factors such as education level, age, gender, and land tenure, marital status and income earnings of smallholder farmers are factors considered important in the adoption of land and water management practices. Environmental factors were also identified as limiting factors to smallholder farmers in soil-water management practices. Such factors involved physical distance, slope, type of crops grown and farm sizes. Insecure land tenure especially among women limits their adoption of the technologies. Technological complexity of the technology (farmers prefer technology that are less complex and easier to use), preference for less labor intensive technology, required capital, land ownership (less adoption in new technology on hired/leased land), approach of introducing the technology (preference of participatory bottom up approach), and motivation and the involvement of farmers from conceptualization to implementation are factors that impact adoption of technologies between farmers. Unsustainable cultivation in catchments and destruction of water sources in Tanzania is limiting the flow of water on which some of water use technologies directly depend. In some areas where farmers and pastoralists co-exist, conflicts always arise from grazing on farmland, with destruction to water infrastructure. In recognition of the need for sustainable management of land and water, and the increasing conflicts over use of resources by different sectors, Tanzania has enacted several policies. The irrigation policy calls for the improvement of irrigation water use efficiency and effectiveness by promoting closed conduit systems and high efficiency methods such as drip irrigation and promotion of efficient water utilization technologies such as the System of Rice Intensification. There is need for harmonization and linkage of land and water management and the policies to avoid conflicts. Whereas for example the customary land law recognizes the right to land entailing some resources therewith, the water law does not recognize such customary right by granting the ownership right to water by the owner of land on which the water resource is found. There is need for adequate mechanisms for enforcing policies, regulations and by-laws. Local water governance institutions such as water user associations are important for sustainable scaling of land and water technologies. Horizontal and vertical scaling of the land and water technologies depends on factors such as facilitation of registration of water user associations and empowering them; implementing projects based on actual ground conditions for ease of adoption by communities; and involvement of the local government. Strengthening linkages between relevant institutions and their respective roles and responsibilities also require to be clearly defined. Promotion of land and water technologies should not be gender-blind but rather ensure participation of women and youth in the training and implementation. An integrated systems approach is needed to address the multi-faceted challenges in sustainable land and water management, and a focus on the entire value chain activities; from input supply to output market

Creating Value Beyond Microfinance Through Entrepreneurship Development in Kenya

This article looks at current microfinance practices in Kenya and some of the inherent challenges that hinder human development of microfinance clients beyond accessing financial services. As microfinance providers and supporters continue to promote the importance of improving access to financial services amongst micro and small business owners, they will need to augment their microfinance services with basic entrepreneurial training.Entrepreneurship; Development; Microfinance; Microenterprise; Kenya

Payments for Environmental Services under Emerging International Agreements: A Basis for Inclusion of Agricultural Soil Carbon Sinks.

This review places in context the role agricultural soils play in global carbon dynamics, and their potential interaction with climate change through soil carbon sequestration. The paper first examine the potential of soils as carbon sinks, agricultural practices and dynamics in soil organic carbon, emerging agreements on payments for environmental services (PES) that mitigate global warming through enhanced carbon sinks, exclusion of agricultural activities in PES under Kyoto Protocol, and the basis for inclusion of agricultural soil carbon sinks through sustainability based production systems. Soils are one of the planets largest sinks for carbon and hold potential for expanded carbon sequestration through changes in management. The global soil organic carbon (SOC) inventory is estimated to be 1200-1600 billion metric tonnes, which is equal to or slightly greater than amounts stored in terrestrial vegetation (500-700 billion metric tonnes) and the atmosphere (750 billion metric tonnes), combined. Agricultural soils, having been depleted of much of their native carbon stocks, and occupying an estimated 1.7 billion hectares, have a more significant potential SOC sink capacity. Global estimates of this sink capacity are in the order of 20-30 billion metric tonnes over the next 50-100 years. The total global agricultural soils SOC stocks are estimated at 167-170 billion metric tonnes. When soil is put into cultivation, associated biological and physical processes result in a release of SOC over time, often 50% or more, depending on soil conditions and agricultural practices. Consequently, there is potential to increase SOC in most cultivated soils. Many management practices have been demonstrated to increase SOC, including incorporation of crop residues, and increases in cropping intensity and fertilization. Past and on-going biophysical studies have been able to identify and demonstrate organic based soil fertility management practices, with modest applications of mineral fertilizers that would concurrently lead to improvement in SOC levels, nutrient loss amelioration and improved agricultural productivity. Management practices that could add 4 T C ha-1 yr-1 in the system have been demonstrated. Due to the potential impacts of climate change on the environment as a result of increasing concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide, the world community established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. The responsibility of IPCC is to undertake an assessment of the science, impacts, adaptation, and mitigation options in relation to climate change and advise the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). At the sixth Conference of the Parties (COP-6) in Marrakech, Morocco, limits were placed on the nature of activities that could be undertaken and the amount of carbon credits that could be generated through land use change and forestry activities to benefit from PES. These limits excluded all activities associated with management of natural forests and agricultural lands. This review argues that a demonstration of sustainability of carbon sinks in agricultural soils under empirically derived predictable management practices could serve as a basis for arguing the case for inclusion of carbon sinks in such systems in payments for environmental services under the Clean Development (CDM) of Kyoto Protocol.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Foreword

This Foreword provides an overview of Fifty Years of Loving v. Virginia and the Continued Pursuit of Racial Equality, a symposium hosted by the Fordham Law Review and cosponsored by the Fordham Law School Center on Race, Law & Justice. Even fifty years later, Loving provides ample foundation for an inquiry into the operation of race and racial inequality in the United States, which touches on the queries outlined above, as well as many others. In our view, a symposium focused on Loving makes a significant contribution by deepening scholarly analysis of that decision and by explicating the kinds of issues and concerns that should be at the heart of research concerning racial equality today