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JusticeForThePoor 12 - 06 Jun 2012 - Main.MeiqiangCui
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| | Hearing about the Trayvon Martin case, I can't help but think about a past Moglen discussion. His observation that the criminal justice system
is just to the poor and kind to the rich can also be applied to how races are viewed in the court system and in public opinion. I was baffled in a recent Matt Lauer interview of Trayvon's parents. At one point he urged the family to not "jump to conclusions" and pass judgment on Zimmerman. Ummm...what?? Some cases are murky. Some have grey areas and nuance. What is so striking about Trayvon's case is the lack of nuance. I don't think there's been a case so public in recent years that has in fact be so void of complexity. | | | Moving on to the issue of race, class, and stereotypes in America, I wonder to what extent physical segregation plays a part in mistrust and racial antagonism. Many cities are still heavily segregated (not by legal fiat, but by economic fiat) and the inability to interact with people of other races probably contributes to Zimmerman's suspicion of (a) black people in general and particularly (b) black people who are walking around in private gated (and probably predominantly white) neighborhoods. But if physical segregation is the problem, what could be the solution? We could mandate that people must live in houses next to people of a different race, but that seems to infringe a bit on personal liberty. One idea that I like in theory (not sure how well it works) is to work on integrating schools, where kids develop their personalities and worldviews... racial quotas and such that seek to ensure diversity.
-- KensingNg - 05 Apr 2012 | |
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> | I agree that segregation should be responsible for the current race discrimination. Even as a foreigner who has lived in the States for less than a year, I’m surprised at how segregated the NY schools are. Just look at the school near 120th street, or visit a museum hosting group tours, you’d see groups of small kids with similar skin color. Implicit segregation also exists in the law school. It is not hard to notice from our 1L classrooms. African Americans, Asians, even when we are still strangers and do not know much about each other, we tend to sit besides people of the same race to us.
Race discrimination is so powerful that it successfully sails across the ocean. Even when I was in Beijing, I constantly heard people talking about how “bad” African American people are. I find it beyond my understanding, as the population of African Americans in Beijing is simply so small that their impact on the society is negligible. The discrimination is largely imported from the States, and is very prevalent among people without higher education.
Thus, when we learned Parents Involved, I really hesitated at accepting the plurality’s opinion “the way to stop discrimination is to stop discriminating.” Even Justice Kennedy’s softer view to hide affirmative action behind measures not considering race on its face seems unsatisfying. Although in the long run the goal is to stop seeing race, under the current circumstances, I can hardly imagine how we are supposed to reverse the discrimination without preferential treatment towards the minorities.
-- MeiqiangCui - 6 June 2012 |
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