Diverse Voices: Articles

 

This post is part of this week's Diverse Voices series, on the topic of articles. Recent thoughtful and generous scholarship has offered valuable critiques of traditional social justice practices and values, such as implicit bias testing and free speech. This scholarship pushes us to examine not only a racist, misogynistic and ableist culture but also the tools we use to criticize and understand that culture.

Additionally, the popular press has provided a platform for more “on-the-ground” perspectives, humanizing the abstract. The piece from The Cut, below, illustrates in personal terms how casual but vicious racism can inflict serious and long-term harm on POC impacting careers and mental health.

Racism at My Job Literally Gave Me PTSD by Erika Stallings – Stallings discusses how a racist partner at her first legal job gave unfair performance reviews because she is black leading to her PTSD. The resultant anxiety and trauma impacted her mental health and her ability to enjoy her work at subsequently positions. She interviews a doctor studying this phenomena and another professional who experience similar treatment at Vox Media.

Lawyering with Challenges: Disability and Empowerment by Stuart Pixley – Pixley is a Washington attorney working in-house with Microsoft. Here he writes about his challenges practicing with cerebral palsy, from practical considerations, such as cramped conference rooms, to confronting traditional notions of what an attorney “looks like.”

‘Continually Reminded of Their Inferior Position’: Social Dominance, Implicit Bias, Criminality and Race by Darren Lenard Hutchinson – Professor Hutchinson writes about the success of implicit bias theory in developing an understanding of personal racism. However, he critiques the theory as being insufficient to explain broad social tolerance of racism and racial inequality. He specifically examines this phenomena within criminal law and law enforcement.

Toxic Misogyny and the Limits of Counterspeech by Lynne Tirrell – Professor Tirrell offers a more academic look at misogynist American culture and the harmful speech arising therefrom. She argues that more speech is not a sufficient response and that traditional First Amendment dogma struggles to contend with the present and real misogyny of American law and politics.