Re-Envisioning Race in a ‘Post-Racial’ Era: New Approaches in Critical Race Theory | Yale Law School

Re-Envisioning Race in a ‘Post-Racial’ Era: New Approaches in Critical Race Theory | Yale Law School

Saturday, April 5, 2014
(with informal events on Friday, April 4, 2014)
Sponsored by the Zelia & Oscar Ruebhausen / Debevoise & Plimpton Fund at Yale Law School

As the nation marks the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there is much to celebrate- and much cause for alarm. The country’s first black president is well into his second term, a development that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. A number of people of color have entered the middle and upper classes, enjoying financial and educational success far beyond what prior generations could have imagined. Critical race theory scholars - once rejected by their law schools and denigrated by their colleagues - have become a part of the academy, helping to shape the discourse around race and the law and imagine new ways forward. Nevertheless, race continues to impact the opportunities we have, how we’re treated under the law, and other important aspects of our lives. The average white family is six times as wealthy as the average black or Latino family. Brutal murders of young boys of color, like Trayvon Martin, and stark racial disparities throughout the criminal legal system reveal ongoing indifference to the humanity of people of color. Comprehensive immigration reform remains a dream deferred. And racial injustices large and small become harder to confront as more and more Americans succumb to the myth that race no longer matters.

The “Re-Envisioning Race” conference will be an exciting opportunity to convene leading scholars, legal practitioners and community leaders to examine the ways in which Critical Race Theory can be applied to scholarly work, legal practice, social justice advocacy and community organizing. The event will continue the dialogue begun at the 2013 conference “Critical Race Theory: From the Academy to the Community,” and will move the larger conversation forward in bold, new directions. Tackling complex issues such as the dangers of discretion in the criminal legal system and the policing of the sexual and reproductive rights of women of color, “Re-Envisioning Race” will offer participants a chance to explore how the lessons of critical race theory can be used to dismantle subtle and violent systems of oppression that continue to constrain the lives of people of color. Conference participants will be challenged to confront injustice “out there” and within our own lives — a practice of reflection that is a necessary part of the liberation to which CRT aspires.