Critical Race Theory

New Article on Racial Bias in Evidence Rules

Ann Tweedy1 Comment

Jasmine Gonzales Rose has posted Toward a Critical Race Theory of Evidence on ssrn. The article is forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review.

Here’s the abstract:

Scholars, judges, and lawyers have long believed that evidence rules apply equally to all persons regardless of race. This Article challenges this assumption and reveals how evidence law structurally disadvantages people of color. A critical race analysis of stand-your-ground defenses, cross-racial eyewitness misidentifications, and minority flight from racially-targeted police profiling and violence uncovers the existence of a dual-race evidentiary system. This system is reminiscent of nineteenth century race-based witness competency rules that barred people of color from testifying against white people. I deconstruct this problem and introduce the original concept of “racialized reality evidence.” This construct demonstrates how evidence of people of color’s lived experiences of systemic racism are regularly excluded at trial, while evidence of white norms and beliefs receives “implicit judicial notice.” Finally, I advocate for a new critical race theory of evidence law and offer solutions — including a reinterpretation of Federal Rule of Evidence 403 — to increase equality in the courtroom.

Justin Hansford Talk Friday: “Critical Race Theory and Legal Story-Telling: The Trayvon Effect”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

hansford flyer

New Scholarship: “A Libertarian Framework for Indian Rights”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Torivio A. Fodder, a University of Arizona SJD student, has posted his dissertation, “A Libertarian Framework for Indian Rights,” on SSRN.Download here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2089533.

Here is the abstract:

This dissertation outlines a new vision for Indian rights, drawing from the fields of libertarian political philosophy and critical race legal theory. The goal is to develop a framework for federal Indian policy that provides for a true realization of tribal self-determinaion, that maximizes the liberty interests of American Indians, and that promotes lasting economic development in Indian Country.

Richard Delgado on the Origins of Critical Race Theory

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Richard Delgado has posted his paper, “Liberal McCarthyism and the Origins of Critical Race Theory,” on SSRN. It is forthcoming in the Iowa Law Review.

Here is the abstract:

I wrote this piece exploring some of the intellectual origins of critical race theory for a 20-year anniversary of the movement held at the University of Iowa in April, 2009. In it, I look at the role of certain prominent university officers in purging their ranks of white radicals to prepare the way, in the late sixties and early seventies, for the first large group of post-Brown minority students who were starting to arrive around that time. I show how four promising white professors, two of law, one of history, and one of criminology lost their jobs and what they did afterward. I show that they continued to teach and write about left-wing thought in the hinterlands in ways that contributed to the rise of critical race theory. As they say, it is hard to kill an idea.

CRT 20th Anniversary Student Writing Competition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

National Law STUDENT WRITING COMPETITION

Re-defining Critical Race Theory:
The Future of the Movement

The year 2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of the first Critical Race Theory (CRT) workshop.  Twenty years ago, the founders of CRT met at a convent in Wisconsin to consider race and ethnicity and the manner in which these categories permeate every aspect of law and society. Although early CRT scholars were subjected to considerable skepticism, they bravely continued to write and speak about race, confident that their scholarship reflected an unacknowledged reality.  Their scholarship entered the discourse of civil rights and constitutional law in the United States, but also influenced other doctrines, including criminal law, family law, and immigration law.  CRT gave birth to other progressive, anti-subordination movements such as Latina/o Critical Theory, OutCrits, and ClassCrits.  The academy has been enriched by the important contributions of CRT scholars.

Continue reading →

Forthcoming Book: “American Indian Education: Counternarratives in Racism, Struggle, and the Law”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

My forthcoming book — “American Indian Education: Counternarratives in Racism, Struggle, and the Law” — is available for pre-order.

The blurb:

American Indian culture and traditions have survived an unusual amount of oppressive federal and state educational policies intended to assimilate Indian people and destroy their cultures and languages. Yet, Indian culture, traditions, and people often continue to be treated as objects in the classroom and in the curriculum. Using a critical race theory framework and a unique “counternarrative” methodology, American Indian Education explores a host of modern educational issues facing American Indian peoples—from the impact of Indian sports mascots on students and communities, to the uses and abuses of law that often never reach a courtroom, and the intergenerational impacts of American Indian education policy on Indian children today. By interweaving empirical research with accessible composite narratives, Matthew Fletcher breaches the gap between solid educational policy and the on-the-ground reality of Indian students, highlighting the challenges faced by American Indian students and paving the way for an honest discussion about solutions.

If you picked up a flyer at Fed Bar (american-indian-education-fba-flyer), you get a discount.

Philips: “Indigenous Rights, Traditional Knowledge, and Access to Genetic Resources”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Valerie Philips (Tulsa) posted “Indigenous Rights, Traditional Knowledge, and Access to Genetic Resources: New Participants in International Law Making” on SSRN. Here’s the abstract:

Being able at least to imagine the demise of the nation-state is critical to understanding how the contemporary nation-state relates to indigenous peoples. Neither Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) nor Critical Race Theory (CRT) has effectively analyzed the impact of indigenous peoples concerns on international law, although both have tried to incorporate indigenous peoples into their respective modes of thinking. This is because TWAIL and CRT continue to focus fundamentally on the goals and advocacy of nationalist elites formed during the so-called post-colonial era. Indigenous peoples are lumped into social movements as if their interests cannot be distinguished from those of the mass of civil society. Scholars who take a grassroots, decolonizing approach, such as Maori professor Linda Tuhiwai-Smith, are much better suited to the task of analyzing the relationships among the nation-state, international laws surrounding traditional knowledge, and the rights of indigenous peoples.

American Indian Law & Lit Speakers Profile — Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

We are pleased to welcome Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic to East Lansing this weekend. They will be presenting a talk entitled, “Crossover.”

They are both very prolific writers and have been pioneers in the development of Critical Race Theory. And Richard has published several articles related to Indian law and policy, see, e.g., here and here. Jean and Richard co-authored a recent book of law and literature, “How Lawyers Lose Their Way: A Profession Loses Its Creative Minds” (Duke, 2005).