The Sixth Edition of this innovative text written by Derrick Bell continues to provide students with insight into the issues surrounding race in America and an understanding of how the law interprets those issues as well as the factors that directly and indirectly influence the law. The first casebook published specifically for teaching race related law courses, Race, Racism, and American Law is engaging, offering hard-hitting enlightenment, and is an unparalleled teaching tool.
Among the features that have made this text a success with both students and instructors through five editions over 35 years:
- Clear and readable text along with a participatory approach that encourages discussion of unresolved and perhaps unresolvable racial issues.
- Interdisciplinary excerpts from historical, sociological, and psychological publications that provide comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the subject and in this edition pose the question of the law’s limitations in remedying current racial barriers.
- Creative hypothetical exercises for possible briefing and argument to the class by student advocates. The presentations promote a learning by teaching experience that enables students to realize the complex nature and consequences of racism in the United States
- Commentary on the Supreme Court's conception of a "color-blind" society and its adverse effects on school desegregation, voting, employment, and affirmative action
- Alternatives to integration in achieving the goal of equal educational opportunity.
- The absence or inadequacy of remedies for racial barriers facing Latino, Asian and Native American citizens.
- Discussion of Professor Lani Guinier's advocacy of proportional representationover majority-minority districts.
- The uses of nooses as racial intimidation symbols replacing flaming crosses.
- Racial priorities in Hurricane Katrina’s rescue and recovery policies.
- The legal ramifications of the disproportionately high percentage of blacks and Hispanics in American prisons
- Legal and social barriers to blacks and Latinos seeking to challenge employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.
- The growing acceptance and continued hostility to interracial sex and marriage.
- The vulnerability of black and Latino buyers to consumer schemes and sub-prime mortgages.
- The limited value of racial protests during a time of war and national crisis.
Fully updated, the Sixth Edition includes:
- Increased citation to and discussion of law review articles that offer new and perhaps controversial perspectives, which Professor Bell utilizes to provide divergent views and thus better provoke class discussion and independent student thought
- Summaries of new Supreme Court cases
- A new hypothetical problem that deals with using non-racial criteria to create school diversity
- New sections on the adverse impact of immigration on black employment and the impact of unemployment on prison rates
Race, Racism, and American Law, Sixth Edition, compiled and published initially in 1973 by Derrick Bell, in this latest addition continues its position as an essential tool to any course addressing the reasons why race remains a key to America’s economic, political and social functioning. If you aren’t already using this text, request an examination copy today.
