Three Ways To Build an Antiracist Law Classroom That Confronts Structural Violence
Legal educators must be proactive in critically assessing why certain cases are studied and taught, how classroom discussions are framed, and which tools and resources students are given as they develop into practicing lawyers.
March 12, 2021 at 10:45 AM
5 minute read
Law professors and law schools have just three years in which to shape future lawyers. We have to cover legal theory and jurisprudence, teach how to apply those concepts to the practice of law, and instill an understanding about how to function within the massive and complicated domestic and international legal systems.
Part of the responsibility of teaching that third pillar is helping students understand that the legal systems under which they will operate as lawyers are not neutral. They are not the steadfast, colorblind arbiter of right and wrong that feel-good TV dramas would have us believe.
The legal structures we as a society created were always flawed, but the cracks have grown deeper in recent decades. The events of 2020 forced us all to stop and watch more closely as the seeds of inequality and violence that have been rooted for decades bore rotten fruit: a pandemic that ravaged marginalized communities; more murders of Black Americans by police officers who faced minimal repercussions; a nationwide travel ban designed to keep Muslims out of the country; and race-based voter suppression policies backed by federal officials, to name only a few.
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