Limits of the Law

Limits of the Law is a lecture series that the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts is holding at Mount Holyoke College this semester. Tonight's speaker was Lani Guinier, a Harvard Law professor who talked about Racial Literacy or Post-Racial Blindness: Where Should the Law Go from Here? It was a fascinating and amazing talk about to what extent are we collectively responsible for putting 1 black man in the white house and 1 million black men in prison? It was very thought provoking and the energy that Professor Guinier shared was contagious. The answer to our crisis is related, again, to education. Rather than spending $200 billion a year on law enforcement we need to direct our money, energy and time to early childhood programs, schooling, and ensuring quality education for all so that we don't disregard the creative potential of all citizens.
Professor Guinier talked about the power structure as 3-dimensional. 1. Visible Contest...The possible competitors: class, race, gender that have the power to set the agenda 2. Who designed the rules? The rules that will most often than not predict the outcome in the agenda's setters favor. 3. Meta-narrative: The story line that helps explain and justify the outcome to the "losers" or say the underprivileged classes. For example we have cultural stories and narratives we tell to justify why some people go to college and others go to college. These cultural stories reinforce inequality or in this specific case racism. "Don't depend on convention to accomplish your goals or aspirations." "Imagine a different world."