11-12-14
Critical Race Theory
Syllabus
Spring 2015, Wednesdays, 1pm – 2:50pm
Room TBA
Professor Llezlie Green Coleman
lcoleman@wcl.american.edu
Office 352 / 202.274.4173
Office Hours: By Appointment
More than two decades ago, a new scholarly movement developed in the legal academy. This
movement, Critical Race Theory, challenged the style and substance of conventional legal
scholarship. Critical Race Theory is a diverse interdisciplinary field, which critiques the
“objectivist” approach to the law and legal systems. Some of the better known early advocates of
this movement include Derrick Bell, Mari Matsuda, Charles Lawrence, Richard Delgado,
Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Patricia Williams. Critical race scholars have rejected traditional legal
methods of addressing systemic racial inequities such as pursuing formal equality, individual
rights, and colorblind methods. Instead, critical race scholars have sought to show that the law is
socially constructed and as such is influenced by institutional and individual perspectives.
Scholars have also argued that race, class, gender, and sexual orientation have always played a
critical role in legal outcomes. In putting forth such arguments, critical race scholars often
employed new styles for legal scholarship, which include storytelling and narrative.
This course examines the genesis of Critical Race Theory and explores its possibilities and
limitations. This investigation requires thinking carefully about race and racism, as well as
classism, sexism, and heterosexism. The course should provide an opportunity to challenge basic
assumptions about race, law, and racial justice. We will do so in a respectful and collegial
environment. Topics we will study include racial identity, the social construction of race,
affirmative action, employment discrimination, identity performance, education, criminal justice,
and voting rights.
Learning Outcomes:




Students will engage in critical analysis of the law and its underlying institutions,
including consideration of the interdisciplinary perspectives about race and the law
through history, sociology, and cultural theory.
Students will identify and critically unpack the significance of race as a normative
principle in the law and integrate their substantive understanding into values of
professionalism, legal ethics, and public service.
Students will demonstrate the ability to understand, analyze, and critique the conceptual
theories (Critical Race Theory, Structural Inequality Theory, Process Theory, theories of
Transformative Justice, etc.) that seek to organize the significance of race.
Students will demonstrate the ability to navigate difficult questions of race in a
collaborative exchange of ideas.
11-12-14

Students will produce a substantively researched, well-edited research paper (that may
satisfy the writing requirement) that demonstrates their ability to produce high quality
work.
Required Text: Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge (Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic,
eds. 2013). Additional reading assigned to be posted on myWCL
Reading Assignments: Attached is a tentative schedule of reading assignments for the semester.
In addition to the required casebook, I will distribute additional reading assignments throughout
the semester. These will be available via myWCL course page. Please note that the topics may
not necessarily coincide with class periods—some may occupy us for more or less time. I will
notify you via class and the myWCL course page of precise assignments in advance, to allow
plenty of time to prepare. You are responsible for checking myWCL course page regularly for
updates on assignments.
Class attendance and participation: You are required to read the assignments and attend class
prepared to participate. Class discussion is critical to the success of this course. As a result, I
place a premium on class discussion and participation, especially participation that displays your
knowledge of the reading. I reserve the right to exclude or reduce the grade of students who are
persistently absent or unprepared.
Response Papers: Students are expected to submit 2 response papers during the course of the
term. Response papers must either (1) engage in critical analysis of at least one article,
illustrating its strengths, weaknesses, voids, etc., or (2) apply the theoretical frameworks
discussed in class to a current issue or event. The response papers are required to be 2-3 pages in
length (double-spaced), and must be submitted via the myWCL coursepage dropbox (15% of
final grade).

Response Papers are due on the following days:
o February 8, 2015
o March 22, 2015
Research Paper and Oral Presentation Requirements: Students are required to write a research
paper in partial fulfillment of the course requirements. Students may write on any topic of their
choice, as long as it is within the scope of the subject matter of the course. Students have three
options in this regard:
(1) Students must submit papers with a length of 20-25 pages that must be typed and doublespaced.
(2) Students who wish to complete their upper level writing requirement with this paper must
submit a paper of at least 30 pages, typed, and double-spaced.
(3) Students may write a more significant paper and earn a third credit in this course as an
independent study. In order to receive this additional credit, students’ final papers must
11-12-14
be 20-25 more pages than the 20-25 pages required for this course. Such projects must
therefore be 40-50 pages in length.
All students will be complete a 10 minute oral presentation on their final paper. I will distribute a
sign-up sheet for scheduling oral presentations.
Additional requirements for research projects are as follows:

Students must submit, via myWCL drop box, a thesis statement on or before
February 15, 2015.

Students must submit, via myWCL drop box, a draft paper for review and discussion by
fellow students toward the end of the semester
The deadline for this draft will depend on the date you choose to present your paper.
Drafts will be due one week prior to your presentation and paper presentations will be
during the month of April. Once you choose your presentation date, the deadline for your
draft will be inflexible, because I will be posting your draft to the myWCL course page to
allow your classmates time to read the paper before your presentation. Please note that if
this version of your paper is not sufficiently complete to allow for an effective class
presentation and to allow me (and your classmates) to provide you with useful comments,
then your final grade will suffer. To ensure the best possible grade in this class, turn in a
completed paper, and then improve it with the benefit of the feedback you receive.

Revised Final papers will be due on or before April 28, 2015 at 11pm. Late
submissions will be penalized with a half letter grade deduction per day. Students are
required to submit their final papers through the myWCL coursepage dropbox.
Grading: Grades will be based primarily on the quality of the research paper. Class participation
will be considered as well. Your final paper will count as 70% of your final grade. Responsive
essays will count as 15% of your final grade. Class participation, which includes oral
presentations on papers, will count as 15% of your final grade.
I.
Introduction
A. What is Critical Race Theory?
B. What is Race?



Introduction, pp 1-4
Richard Delgado, Liberal McCarthyism and the Origins of Critical Race
Theory, pp. 38-46
Richard Delgado, Liberal McCarthyism (cont.), pp. 147-53
11-12-14





Juan F. Perea, The Black/White Binary Paradigm of Race, pp. 457-65
Leslie G. Espinoza & Angela P. Harris, Embracing the Tar-Baby, pp. 567-73
Ian Haney Lopez, The Social Construction of Race: Some Observations on
Illusion, Fabrication, and Choice, pp. 238-248
Peggy McIntosh, Unpacking White Skin Privilege (myWCL coursepage)
Film, Race: The Power of an Illusion
C. The Social Science Underpinnings of Race and Racism
 Peggy C. Davis, Law as Microagression, pp.187-196
 Richard Delgado, Words that Wound: A Tort Action for Racial Insults,
Epithets, and Name-Calling, pp. 179-187
 Gregory S. Parks & Jeffrey Rachlinski, Implicit Bias, Election 2008, and the
Myth of a Postracial America, pp. 197-210
II.
Interest Convergence Theory
A. Fulfilling Brown’s Mandate




Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Brown v. Board of Education and the InterestConvergence Dilemma, (myWCL coursepage)
Mary L. Dudziak, Desegregation as a Cold War Imperative, pp. 136-1146
Lia Epperson, True Integration: Advancing Brown’s Goal of Education Equity
in Wake of Grutter (myWCL coursepage)
Sharon Rush, The Heart of Equal Protection: Education and Race (myWCL
coursepage)
B. The Current State of Racial Integration and Defining Discrimination




III.
Integration Exercise
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (myWCL coursepage)
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle (myWCL coursepage)
"The Rehnquist Court, the Resurrection of Plessy and the Elusive Definition of
'Societal Discrimination'", in AWAKENING FROM THE DREAM: CIVIL
RIGHTS UNDER SIEGE AND THE NEW STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE,
Morgan, et al. Carolina Academic Press (2006) (myWCL coursepage)
Beyond the Black-White Paradigm



Juan F. Perea, The Black-White Binary Paradigm of Race, pp. 457-465
Robert S. Chang, Toward an Asian American Legal Scholarship: Critical
Race Theory, Postculturalism, and Narrative Space, pp.466-478
Muneer I. Ahmad, A Rage Shared by Law: Post-September 11 Racial
Violence as Crimes of Passion, pp. 492-498
11-12-14

Kenneth Prewitt, Racial Classification in America: Where Do We Go from
Here? pp. 511-520
Additional readings to be determined
IV.
Storytelling and Counterstorytelling






V.
Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Property Rights in Whiteness: Their Legal Legacy, Their
Economic Costs, pp. 63-70
Richard Delgado, Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for
Narrative, pp. 71-80
Thomas Ross, The Richmond Narratives, pp. 81-89
Gerald Torres & Kathryn Milun, Translating Yonnondio by Precedent and
Evidence: The Mashpee Indian Case, pp. 90-96
Patricia J. Williams, Alchemical Notes: Reconstructing Ideals from
Deconstructed Rights, pp. 97-106
andre douglas pond cummings, A Furious Kinship: Critical Race Theory and
the Hip-Hop Nation, pp. 101-119
Intersectionality and Anti-Essentialism
A. Intersectionality



Kimberlé Crenshaw, Demarginalizing the Intersection (myWCL
coursepage)
Angela P. Harris, Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory, pp. 347359
Angela Onwuachi-Willig & Jacob Willig-Onwuachi, A House Divided: The
Invisibility of the Multiracial Family, pp. 416-425
B. Critical Race Feminism



VI.
Monica J. Evans, Stealing Away: Black Women, Outlaw Culture, and the
Rhetoric of Rights, pp. 647-658
Margaret E. Montoya, Máscaras, Trenzas, and Grenas: (Un)Masking the Self
While (Un)Braiding Latina Stories and Legal Discourse, pp. 659-668
Elvia Rosales Arriola, Of Woman Born: Courage and Strength to Survive in
the Maquiladoras of Reynosa and Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, pp. 779-684
Interracial Intimacies
A. Intersections Between Race, Sex and Interracial Intimacy

Catherine Smith, Queer as Black Folk?, Wisc. L.Rev. (2007) (myWCL
coursepage)
11-12-14






Kevin R. Johnson, Race in America: Strom Thurmond’s Daughter and the
Enduring Taboo on Black/White Marriages, S.F. Chron. Jan. 4, 2004, at D5
(myWCL coursepage)
Randall Kennedy, How Are We Doing With Loving?: Race, Law, and
Intermarriage, 77 B.U. L. Rev. 815 (1997) (myWCL coursepage)
Sophian v. Von Linde, 253 N.Y.S. 2d 496 (N.Y. App. Div. 1964) (myWCL
coursepage)
People v. Godlines, 62 P.2d 787 (Cal. Dist. Ct. App. 1936) (my WCL
coursepage)
Joanna Grossman, Shifting the Terrain of the Trial: What Did the Husband
Know, at http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20020805_grossman.html
(myWCL coursepage)
R. Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People? (2011) excerpts (myWCL
coursepage)
B. Race in Adoption and Family Planning





VII.
Palmore v. Sidoti, 466 U.S. 429 (1984) (myWCL coursepage)
Zanita E. Fenton, In a World Not Their Own: The Adoption of Black Children,
10 Harv. Black Letter L.J. (1993) (myWCL coursepage)
Lynette Clemson & Ron Nixon, Overcoming Adoption’s Racial Barriers,
N.Y. Times Aug. 17, 2006 (myWCL coursepage)
Dov Fox, Choosing Your Child’s Race, (myWCL coursepage)
Meredith Rodriguez, “Lawsuit: Wrong Sperm Delivered to Lesbian Couple,”
Chicago Tribune
Queer-Lesbian Issues



Elvia R. Arriola, Gendered Inequality, pp. 431-433
Darren Lenard Hutchinson, Sexual Politics and Social Change, pp. 434-437
Russell K. Robinson, Racing the Closet, pp. 438-452
VIII. Race and Employment
A. What is it? Does it include the ways in which we work in our identities?




Devon W. Carbado & Mitu Gulati, Working Identity, pp. 223-237
Charles R. Lawrence III, The Id, the Ego, and Equal Protection: Reckoning
with Unconscious Racism, pp. 312-322
Sumi Cho, Converging Stereotypes in Racialized Sexual Harassment: Where
the Model Minority Meets Suzie Wong, pp. 604-09
Paulette M. Caldwell, A Hair Piece: Perspectives on the Intersection of Race
and Gender, pp. 360-369
11-12-14

Marianne Bertrand, Are Emily and Greg More Employable than LaKisha and
Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination (MyWCL
coursepage)
B. Battling Stereotypes

Prejudice Speech Exercise
C. Race in the Workplace



IX.
Gerald P. Lopez, The Work We Know So Little About, pp. 750-758
Julie A. Su, Making the Invisible Visible: The Garment Industry’s Dirty
Laundry, pp. 758-763
Leticia Saucedo, The Employer Preference for the Subservient Workers and
the Making of the Brown-Collar Workplace, pp. 375-383
Affirmative Action



Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Emily Houh & Mary Campbell, Cracking the Egg:
Which Came First – Stigma or Affirmative Action, pp. 249-254
Richard H. Sander, A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American
Law Schools, pp. 725-737
Thomas Ross, Innocence and Affirmative Action, pp. 783-793
Additional readings to be assigned
X.
Race and Criminal Justice
A. Infecting the Criminal Justice System with Racial Bias



Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 273-281.
Angela J. Davis, Prosecution and Race: The Power and Privilege of
Discretion (on myWCL coursepage)
Cynthia Kwei Yung Lee, Race and Self-Defense: Toward a Normative
Conception of Reasonableness, pp. 291-297
B. Race-Based Jury Nullification

Paul Butler, Racially Based Jury Nullification: Black Power in the Criminal
Justice System, pp. 282-290
Additional readings to be added
XI.
Student Paper Presentations