Suchergebnisse

Does "Asian American" denote an ethnic or racial identification? Is a person of mixed ancestry, the child of Euro- and Asian American parents, Asian American? What does it mean to refer to first generation Hmong refugees and fifth generation Chinese Americans both as Asian American?. In Disoriented: Asian Americans, Law, and the Nation State , Robert Chang examines the current discourse on race and law and the implications of postmodern theory and affirmative action-all of which have largely excluded Asian Americans-in order to develop a theory of critical Asian American legal studie

In the run-up to and aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election, much has been made of the so-called "white working class." Some credit or blame this group for the election's outcome. Others warn against treating this group as monolithic. Yet despite any difficulties in defining this group and what might be ascribed to them, there appears to be an intensification of white racial identity among a growing segment of America's white population. This article seeks to explore the dynamics of racial identity and racial contest and what they might presage for the possibility of achieving racial justice.

This Article examines several decades of race antidiscrimination law to conjecture about the course LGBT civil rights might take following Obergefell v. Hodges. It draws from Alan Freeman's germinal Minnesota Law Review article, Legitimizing Racial Discrimination Through Antidiscrimination Law: A Critical Review of Supreme Court Doctrine, and asks whether Freeman's thesis that race antidiscrimination law actually serves to legitimize the status quo of real-world racial inequality might apply with equal force in the context of LGBT civil rights and LGBT inequality. The Article suggests that the Court may develop, similar to its colorblind constitutionalism, a "sexuality-blind constitutionalism" in which formal equality is achieved but where distinctions drawn between public and private as well as the accommodation of religion might produce equality in name while leaving much inequality unredressed and legally unredressable. While not arguing for the abandonment of civil rights efforts in federal courts, the Article urges that these efforts be accompanied by efforts in state courts as well as in the political sphere at all levels. State level efforts may result in an unsatisfactory patchwork of equality and inequality based on geography, but state level advances in equality may inform changes that occur eventually at the federal level.

The essay begins by examining amicus briefs submitted in Fisher v. Texas by Asian American organizations in support of and in opposition to affirmative action. What does it mean when groups that purportedly protect, advance, and represent the interests of Asian Americans invoke the historical treatment of Asian Americans and present facts about Asian Americans but end up advocating for opposite outcomes? This Essay starts with the competing Asian American perspectives and assertions of authority expressed in these briefs to explore the theme of a Symposium at the UC Irvine School of Law, provocatively entitled, Reigniting Community: Strengthening the APA Identity. The Symposium theme makes two assumptions: (1) there is a community to be reignited; and (2) there is an APA identity that exists to be strengthened. These assumptions in turn beg two questions: Why do we want to reignite community? To what end do we want to strengthen APA identity? To posit these as goals indicates that these are political projects. Describing them as political projects does not undermine or discredit them — it merely acknowledges the aspirational dimension of the Symposium theme that necessarily invokes identity politics. But group identity presumes a group. Part I provides context for the discussion of the Asian racial category. Part II discusses the construction of the Asian racial category that serves as the basis for Asian American communities and Asian American identity. Part III examines the relationship between individuals to the group in order to understand better what leads individuals to identify as members of a racial group and racialized community. Part IV returns to the politics of affirmative action and the role that Asian Americans play in this debate. Included in this discussion is the dynamic of racial triangulation and the role it plays in helping to consolidate identity as well as coalitions.

Fifteen years ago, Keith Aoki and Professor Robert Chang published "Centering the Immigrant in the Inter/National Imagination" in an early LatCrit symposium. Fifteen years later Professor Chang uses the occasion of the current Symposium to revisit conversations with Keith about centering the immigrant in political theory, as he addresses the issue of immigration, the rights of immigrants, and what is to be our national self-conception. What follows is a sketch that shows how centering the immigrant exposes the inattention paid to the immigrant and the issue of immigration in social contract theory. It focuses on how the immigrant might be brought into the conversation within John Rawls's notion of the original position and the veil of ignorance. This essay does not seek to determine the content of the conversation nor what principles might be agreed upon by those in the original position.

This article summarizes a recent amicus brief written by the Korematsu Center. It describes a Spokane, Washington medical malpractice case where juror racial bias toward a party's attorney was used as direct evidence. It describes the momentum and mobilization of the amicus brief, and the success in the appellate courts. It is offered as a model for how law school clinics can engage in effective advocacy to help democratize the courts.

Professor Williams believes that the interests of the White working class and White men can be aligned with a progressive agenda to transform the workplace to the benefit of all workers and to have the salutary effect of reducing the current negative economic consequences experienced by women. The organizing principle revolves around what Williams presumes to be a shared answer to the question: "Should an employer be able to keep you from doing right by your family?" She believes that "[b]uilding a coalition to enact policies that enable Americans to balance work and family responsibilities should be within the realm of possibility," but in order to be successful, the coalition must include this "Missing Middle." Although a significant portion of the book is about what Williams characterizes as the "Missing Middle," the book seems directed toward a certain group of progressives: reform-minded elites, many of whom are drawn from the professional-managerial class. Williams exhorts these elites to take the lead to end the class wars. These marching orders reveal that Williams intends the professional-managerial class to be a primary audience for the book's messages. I agree with Professor Williams that in order to work together, both groups must put aside egos and hurt feelings. What I am less certain about is how far her blueprint takes us toward developing effective coalitions. It underestimates the powerful psychological forces at work and the investments that have been made in racialized and gendered identity formations—investments that present very serious challenges for persuading the Missing Middle to join forces with progressives to pass legislation necessary to alter the workplace, even if it is in the Missing Middle's own self-interest.

Twenty-five years ago, Professor Richard Delgado published The Imperial Scholar. The article asserted that a group of white scholars dominated the field of civil rights scholarship to the exclusion of minority scholars. It created a firestorm of sorts with what one critic called a "serious charge of invidious racism on the part of respected legal scholars." Professor Derrick Bell described the piece as "an intellectual hand grenade, tossed over the wall of the establishment as a form of academic protest." Whether as firestorm or grenade, this foundational piece had a tremendous impact on the legal landscape. This brief essay examines the claims made by the article and the way that it laid the groundwork for much of critical race theory.

In this brief article, Professor Chang explores the goals and challenges in constructing a course on Asian Americans and the Law. In his course on Asian Americans and the Law, Professor Chang tries to include in the weekly reading packets history, narratives, and cases. Professor Chang includes the narratives because he has found that the students often have a difficult time relating to the history without them. After all, narratives bring life to history, making it easier for students to relate to and/or identify with the historical persons who occupy very different subject positions with regard to race, nationality, immigration history, class, and gender. He also includes cases because they simultaneously document enactments of power directed against persons of Asian ancestry and stand as examples of active resistance by those persons in the face of state and private power. This article is also accompanied by the course syllabus.

This is the accompanying syllabus to the essay by Professor Chang, "Teaching Asian Americans and the Law: Struggling with History, Identity, and Politics." The article explores the goals and challenges in constructing a course on Asian Americans and the Law. In his course on Asian Americans and the Law, Professor Chang tries to include in the weekly reading packets history, narratives, and cases. Professor Chang includes the narratives because he has found that the students often have a difficult time relating to the history without them. After all, narratives bring life to history, making it easier for students to relate to and/or identify with the historical persons who occupy very different subject positions with regard to race, nationality, immigration history, class, and gender. He also includes cases because they simultaneously document enactments of power directed against persons of Asian ancestry and stand as examples of active resistance by those persons in the face of state and private power.