Race Rights and the Law Blog

  A Farewell Poem to Professor Terry Smith (1964 - 2020) The Last of the Giants Spoken Word of Poem here Terry Smith Last of the Giants     You are………………you were………………….always will be ahead of your time one of the last torches still burning a lone voice in what was once a chorus, unified, demanding justice time widdled away               their passion money eroded               the pain a little…

Remembering Terry Smith We write to express our sadness at the passing of Professor Terry Smith, most recently of St. Thomas University (Florida) Law School, and admiration for all he contributed to our community and accomplished in his academic fields.   We want to highlight the role he played in forming the John Mercer Langston Black Male Law Faculty Writing Workshop.  Terry co-founded the…

  “Did you see that article about how blue the clouds are now in China because of corona?” asked my friend on a virtual hangout. As an environmental justice scholar, I found something deeply troubling about all the news stories and posts celebrating clear, blue skies - all with some flavor of “hey, at least we are giving mother nature a break.” (Photo by Lara Tollin on Scoio) Firstly, surely…

The ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice has developed a multi-part webinar series exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic highlights critical legal issues of criminal justice, civil rights, human rights, and economic concerns, to name only a few. In these free non-CLE and (two CLE) webinars, panelists will address the deepening crisis in our collective pursuit of advancing law and justice…

In 2009, Sonja Hutchins et al, in an article in the American Journal of Public Health observed that “racial/ethnic minority populations experience worse health outcomes than do other groups during and after disasters.” [1] They may well have been speaking of the current COVID-19 pandemic.  Even though the general belief is that a virus knows no race, no class and no income, the differences…

  Folks who experience homelessness and chronic illness, and those charged with or convicted of crimes, and children at risk, and asylum seekers, and any number of other groups of human beings treated as "less than" in our society-- and those who work with them— have long known that we often fail at taking care of one another. Like, this is a pass-fail situation, and we get an F-.

    The impacts of the novel coronavirus are being felt across the world, and in all domains of our lives, from physical and mental health, to job security, housing, and family life. Existing inequalities are more visible than ever, with the burdens of the crisis falling on some much more than others. Some governments are exploiting the crisis to crackdown on civil liberties. This series brings…

The Washburn Law faculty produced a 55 minute faculty colloquium on the sociol-legal dimensions of the COVID19 pandemic.  This is a helpful resource to share with law students and members of the general public eager to learn more about these issues. https://video.washburn.edu/hapi/v1/contents/permalinks/Ca2d8KQz/view   Kudos to Dean Carla Pratt and her faculty for organizing such a speedy and…

The students at Univ. of St. Thomas (Minn), rather than cancelling their symposium, are holding it on Zoom.  Please consider attending!  Inequality of Wealth, Race, and Class; Equality of OpportunityMar 27, 20208:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Housing Panel 9:30am -11:00amTax Panel 11:00am -12:30pmSocial Mobility 1:30pm - 3:00pmPoverty: Urban and Rural 3:00pm - 4:30pm Please click the link…

Cross-posting from The Faculty Lounge: Bridget Crawford (Pace) and I are both teaching from the new textbook by Lisa Fairfax (GW), Business Organizations: An Integrated Approach (Foundation Press 2020).  We are in the process of planning to pool resources to create video resources for students.  We welcome collaborators who would like to develop a library of materials that students could use (e.g…