Diverse Opinions:
Student Writing on Racial Justice
One of the Racial Justice Project's goals is to encourage students to think critically about racial justice issues. To that end, students are encouraged to write in-depth, thoughtful pieces about race, law, and society. We offer some of these student pieces in this forum for your consideration.
Because of the diverse backgrounds and interests of our students, these papers will not necessarily represent the opinions of the faculty or the official views of the Project.
Ethnic Slurs in the Land of the Free[dom of
Speech]
By Felicia Reid
In 1973, social critic and comedian George Carlin recorded a 12-minute monologue, titled “Filthy Words,” for his stand-up comedy album Occupation: Foole. In his musings, Carlin explored seven words, “curse words and swear words, the cuss words that you can’t say—that you’re not supposed to say.” The seven words were…
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Identity, Judicial Philosophy, and Decision-Making
By Juliana Moran
Leading up to and during her confirmation hearings, now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor received a significant amount of criticism for her 2001 remark that a “wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” This statement stoked a greater debate among the American public regarding whether personal background has a place in judicial decision-making. Those who criticized Justice Sotomayor’s statement saw it as the first step toward bias or a basis for judicial activism. Those who agreed with Justice Sotomayor pointed to the fact that law, while often abstract, has real-world implications. Certainly there is value in the discussion about whether judges should rule with…
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Unfulfilled Promises: An Analysis of Why the Thirteenth
Amendment Has Been Underutilized and What We Can Do About It
By Peter W. Beauchamp
Given its extraordinary breadth and ambition, someone who knew nothing about the Thirteenth Amendment beyond its text would expect it to have played a much larger role in this country’s struggle for racial justice than it has. It is baffling that the amendment’s protection against the public and private “badges and incidents” of slavery has had almost no bearing on most of the civil rights movement’s hallmark legal and legislative victories and defeats. Indeed, there is even reason to think that those who actually drafted the Thirteenth Amendment expected their labor to have had a much more profound legacy than it has. While heralding the formal and constitutional end to the institution of slavery is no small feat, the Thirteenth Amendment has been prevented from truly addressing the “badges and incidents” of slavery since very near to its ratification. Still, in light of this nation’s lingering racial caste system and…
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The
War on Drugs: A Legalized Form of Discrimination on the Basis of
Race
By Jessica Nitsche
In South Carolina, police in SWAT gear entered a high school, specifically targeting African American students, holding guns to students’ heads as they searched for illegal drugs. No drugs were found in this raid. In Texas, 15 percent of all of the young African American males living in one city were arrested in a drug sweep predicated on merely one tip from an informant. All of the men were innocent. Although these stories are alarming, they are not unique. All across the country African Americans are searched, detained, arrested, and incarcerated in furtherance of the War on Drugs. Masked by facially race neutral policies and procedures, the War on Drugs has become a form of legalized discrimination against minorities, specifically African Americans. We need look no farther than our jails and prisons to see the effect of the racially discriminatory policies of the War on Drugs. In some parts of…
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The
Constitutionality of Teacher Assignment Plans After Parents Involved
in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1: What Would
Justice Kennedy Do?
By Zachary Kerner
This paper discusses the U.S. Supreme Court case Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and the delicate holding issued by a plurality of the Justices, in which the voluntary school desegregation plans of Seattle and Jefferson County, Kentucky were struck down as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Paying particular attention to Justice Kennedy's enigmatic concurring opinion, this paper argues that the constitutionality of Jefferson County's similarly administered teacher disbursement policy may have garnered five votes had the school district not settled the lawsuit against it. Perhaps more importantly, though, conducting the analysis highlights the apparent contradictions in and absurdity of the Court's Equal Protection jurisprudence and the practical effect this has on efforts to combat the resegregation of America's public schools.
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Redefining the Ideal Debtor
By W. Demia
Wilburn
In this Note, the author explores the ongoing impact of the current housing market decline on Black and Hispanic communities, with an emphasis on bankruptcy protections. The Note aims to impart critical information to communities uninformed about the bankruptcy process and the manner in which they can take full advantage of a bankruptcy filing to resolve their financial problems.
