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.

Diverse Voices: YouTube

YouTube is a fantastic tool for anyone interested in watching talks, speeches, and conversations that would otherwise go unseen by those outside the participants and live audience. If you're unfamiliar with YouTube's interface, try using the main search box to find videos, playlists, and channels featuring diverse voices. 

To get started, here are a few videos featuring influential women in the law. Watch the videos, and grapple with the thoughts and questions these thinkers pose. We've crafted brief summaries and a few questions after each video in order to focus your thinking on DEI themes: 

In her talk “Hiding in Plain Sight,” John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School Jeannie Suk Gersen discusses shifts in the thinking behind legal education over the past several decades. Suk Gersen begins with the history of legal pedagogy in America, the Socratic Method, as well as Duncan Kennedy's Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System, a class-, race-, and gender-based critique of legal education. Suk Gersen also asks how professors may best promote equality of education through their teaching. In Suk Gersen's experience, the Socratic Method helps to encourage women and minorities to participate in the classroom conversation--when other methods are used, white male voices dominate the classroom. Have you considered whether the Socratic Method establishes or perpetuates hierarchies in the classroom? Do you agree with Professor Suk Gersen that the Socratic Method is a useful tool in hearing from diverse voices?

In a conversation with BARBRI, Associate Director of Admissions at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Alicia Miles discusses the importance of diversity in the ambitions and perspectives of law students. She emphasizes that law schools do a disservice to students when they don't assemble classes that feature diverse perspectives, and that modern attorneys need to be able to navigate diverse landscapes, including diversity in ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Miles encourages prospective law students to examine faculty and staff, leadership teams, student organizations, and other factors to assess diversity. If you're already enrolled in law school, did diversity factor into your school choice? If you're looking at prospective law schools, how will diversity influence your choice, if it will play a role at all? 

In a conversation with Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law Kenji Yoshino, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg discusses her experience as a Jewish woman in legal practice, and the evolution of diversity in legal practice over her long career. How do you see the meaning of diversity expanding in your lifetime as a lawyer?  

Diverse Voices - Blogs

Blogs are an interesting animal. They can be a hot mess of hot takes, or a valuable source of insightful commentary and well-curated information. Unfortunately, my biggest take away researching legal and library related blogs with a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, is that there are not enough people blogging about these issues, especially from diverse perspectives. So, two things - get out there and make your voice heard, and I may have journeyed a little farther afield than the other posts in the Diverse Voices Series.

Above the Law is a must-read source of legal news and commentary. Here is a DEI focused post: Top 5 Biglaw Firm Raises The Bar On Billable Diversity & Inclusion Hours.

Above the Law's blog, The Jabot, focuses on women and the law. {Did you know that “jabot” is the word for the frilly lace collar the late Justice Ginsburg wore with her judicial robe? See this fashion story from Town & Country. (Special thanks to Mary Whisner for suggesting this additional information!)}

Law360 is another major source of legal news. Learn how diversity affects Access to Justice.

"The Blacker the Content the Sweeter the Truth" is the tagline for The Root. Check out The Root's literary blog, It'sLit!

Find news and commentary about the fight for social justice at the Impact Fund. More social justice blogs at https://mediablog.prnewswire.com/2020/06/08/social-justice-blogs/.

Read about diversity at non-profits in the Nonprofit Law Blog and legal careers at
the Vault's Career Advice Blog: Black Lives Matter and PersuasionPoint: DEI.

For insights into the law and the practice of law in other countries:

 

China Law Blog

 

The Korean Law Blog

  

UK Constitutional Law Association 

  

Lawctopus (India)

 

   

 

The JurisMex Blog

And for information about legal practice and the law in Asia in general, see the Kinney Recruiting Asia Chronicles (Above the Law).

Finally, here is a law librarian's take on DEI following the death of George Floyd: https://ripslawlibrarian.wordpress.com/2020/12/14/new-bipoc-burdens-or-great-ideas-a-black-law-librarians-reaction-to-dei-ideas-post-george-floyd/#comment-6301.

Note: Ideas, opines, et cetera, et al, excelsior, and so forth, found in the above resources are not of Gallagher Law Library or staff or the Law School (or UW. You get the idea.)

Credits: Images from https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com/flags-of-the-world.html.

Diverse Voices - Social Justice Research Guides

Presidential candidate and U.S. Rep.
Shirley Chisholm in 1972

Library research guides are always an incredible source of collected resources on a topic that you are interested in or just getting to know.

With the Web, you can access library research guides not only from your local library, but from around the world!  (Try using the Google Translate function on Chrome if you find a webpage that is not in a language you can read.)

The American Association of Libraries Research Instruction & Patron Services Special Interest Section recently created a webpage with links to research guides on diversity, equity, and inclusion and related topics.  These research guides provide information on legal and non-legal resources on anti-racism, critical studies, protest rights, social justice, and more.

Some research guides that I found useful were:

• Diversity in the Legal Profession (Univ. of Washington Gallagher Law Library)
• Diversity Readings Related to First-Year Courses (Univ. of Washington Gallagher Law Library
• Race, Research & Policy Portal (Harvard Kennedy School)
• Remote Resources for Anti-Racism (Univ. of South Carolina Law Library)
• Social Justice Guide (Howard Univ. School of Law Library)

Please take a browse and see what interests you!  It’s also great to revisit the webpage periodically because research guides continue to be added as they are developed!

As we all know, people who are fortunate enough to be trained in the law have a unique ability to contribute to social change.

This post is part of the Gallagher Law Library's Diverse Voices Series for DEI Week at UW Law.

Image description: 1972 poster of presidential candidate and U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm. 

Image from: Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse collection (Images of African American Women Changemakers).