2009 Symposium: Race in Colorblind Spaces

Context

For several decades, racial discourse in both law and politics has arguably been dominated by the call for colorblindness, that we should aspire to “get  beyond race” and “see people as people not as skin color.”  While liberals and conservatives have differed sharply about whether particular race conscious policies are justified (e.g. affirmative action, magnet schools, minority districting), across the political spectrum, colorblindness has been advanced as the prevailing racial norm around which we should organize.  Some contend that we must take account of race on the way to a colorblind ideal; others dispute this trajectory and assert that colorblindness tomorrow can only be achieved by implementing colorblindness now.  Still others who eschew normative arguments in favor of empirically based claims argue that eliminating race from public policy decisions actually produces better social decisions.  In some instances colorblindness has even become formal state policy through legislative initiatives such as Proposition 209 in California and Proposal 2 in Michigan.

This debate has largely overlooked the particular phenomenon that is at the center of the 2009 CRS Symposium: the persistence of race and racial dynamics in spaces that have been rendered formally colorblind.   Notwithstanding the general recognition that context shapes how race is experienced, there has been little attempt to assess how the specific context of formal colorblindness affects the experience of race.  Our plan is to do so by convening legal and social science scholars to undertake interdisciplinary examinations of how race functions in environments that are formally colorblind. 

Domains

We have tentatively identified four socially significant domains of investigation:

• university (e.g.,  do stigma and stereotype threat persist even after formal colorblindness is mandated by law or policy?);
• workplace (e.g., does race continue to influence hiring, evaluation and promotion in the merit-only, colorblind firm, and if so, how?),
• policing (e.g., to what extent, if at all, does our commitment to colorblindness eliminate race and its proxies from domestic crime enforcement and anti-terrorism apparatus?);
• and self-governance (e.g.,  does the persistent examination of voting patterns by race comport with the notion of colorblindness, particularly against the backdrop of Barack Obama’s election?).

With respect to each domain, in addition to examining how, if at all, race is operating, we will also explore whether colorblindness is necessarily a “conservative” ideal or whether instead colorblindness can be deployed to achieve “progressive” results.  In other words, should we retire the old colorblind/color-conscious dichotomy in favor of a contextual approach to racial policy.

Panelists

We are pleased to welcome a fantastic set of participants that include social scientists and legal analysts (listed on the right).

Panelists: please review documents in the private workspace.

Lead Faculty Organizers

Professors Jerry Kang and Cheryl Harris are serving as the faculty lead organizers of this year's Symposium

Conclusion

The entire CRS law faculty is incredibly excited about this Symposium.  We are thankful of our vibrant CRS students who will assist in the planning,  organization, and logistics.   We are also thankful to Dean Michael Schill, who has generously supported the CRS Program and its Symposia.  This is an opportunity to produce a body of knowledge and work that could be read for decades.  Our hope is that, at the very least, the Symposium will put in place a model for interdisciplinary engagement that subsequently can be reproduced.  

Confirmed Participants

(participants, please review documents in the private workspace)