Race Rights and the Law Blog

In recent years, shows like Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and Empire – all featuring African Americans in prominent roles in front of and behind the cameras – have become favorites of viewers of all races.  Many African Americans (and others) have cheered this development as long overdue in an industry where people of color fight for roles and recognition.  Others assert that the shows do…

The U.S. Census Bureau is currently contemplating a standalone Middle-Eastern American box that may appear on the forthcoming 2020 U.S. Census application.  The new classification would allow Americans with ties to the Middle East and North Africa, currently classified as white under Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to identify as Middle-Eastern American.  The proposed reform, and shape and…

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, sided with black legislators and reversed and remanded a decision upholding Alabama’s 2012 redistricting plan against a racial gerrymandering challenge.  This was a victory for the plaintiffs, the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus and the Alabama Democratic Conference, who had argued that the State of Alabama had violated Equal…

Two weeks after New York City announced that its schools would observe the principal Muslim holidays, another school district in the State of New York signaled that Islamophobia in America, and its classrooms, was hardly on the decline.  On Wednesday March 18th, a student at Pine Bush High School recited the American Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic.  The exercise was part of the School’s “National…

At the recent celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches, President Obama, along with other luminaries, reflected on history and legacy of the civil rights movement. Mr. Obama's speech (full text here) raised once again the question about how race affects the right to vote and suggests consideration of these questions from a structural viewpoint. The President's…

Here's news about a lawsuit in Missouri: Shanta Wheeler claims the school district in Laddonia, Mo., acknowledged the racism from "the parents, the community, and the [school] district," and asked her to resign because "the parents, community, and Community School District had such a problem" with race. At this point this is only one side of the story, of course, but I was struck by how the…