The Racist Breeding Grounds of Harvard Law School — Feministe

By Diane Lucas

Earlier this week, a Harvard 3L named Stephanie Grace was introduced to many people in the country (or at least to people who follow legal blogs). She has a resume that could make her the next president of the USA. Grace went to HLS and Princeton undergrad. (the same pedigree as Michelle Obama). She is an editor on the Harvard Law review and has a federal clerkship lined up. Yet Grace still holds some archaic, backwards, and flat-out racist views. In short, Grace believes that there is a scientific possibility of black people being genetically inferior to white people. She equates it to being as simple as Irish people being more likely to have red hair, and African Americans being more likely to have darker skin. Of course, she explains intellect is about nature–for example, if her baby is raised by her in America or in a Nigerian orphanage, her baby would still share her intellectual prowess (wow, that is just too much ignorance in one sentence). Grace first spewed her racist statements at a law school dinner and then later clarified her views over an email. It was sent to a Black Law Students Association (BLSA) member, and then became viral. I refuse to waste my time and energy refuting a point as ridiculous as this, as I literally cannot have the intellectual equality of black people be open for debate.

The deeper issue here is how and why Harvard Law breeds a racially tense environment, which often culminates in “race wars.” And why the administration often ignores or ridicules any backlash from black students after a racist incident. As an African-American woman and a HLS alum, I dealt with the Harvard racism everyday. I felt like I was an outsider on campus; and often invisible. When I felt accepted, I sometimes felt exoticized. My classmates would refer to me as “homegirl” or “diva”, but call other students by their given name. Worse, black students were often racially profiled on campus– made to show identification to and from class. In classes I was often confused with the five other black women in an 80-person class. And then of course, there were the infamous classroom discussions. I heard the statistical explanations for why black people were pre-disposed to be more violent, which of course was cited in support of racial profiling; or the affirmative action discussions in which, essentially, some of my white classmates explained why black students in the class did not deserve to be there.

Interestingly, Harvard Law has deep ties with racism. It was built from the proceeds of Antiguan slave labor on wheat plantations, which is reflected today by the three wheat sheaves in the HLS school crest. I believe HLS’ current battles with race are a result of it having a significant population of sheltered, often white-bred students, who went to non-diverse prep schools, many of whom were made to think at an early age they were geniuses and everything they spewed was brilliant. When these students attempt to intellectualize racist views, they often cite statistics and/or science to support their views. This leads to a false sense of validity and creates a twilight zone in which the irrational somehow becomes acceptable in intellectual, legal debate. Problematically, HLS fails to address the racial tension until it reaches a boiling point. Even then, in recent history, HLS has failed to take appropriate steps to discuss or address the racist acts of students, and has even condoned them in certain instances. The HLS administration has criticized students who take a stand as being over sensitive, overly passionate, irrational and/or not appreciating the right to freedom of speech. So with that in mind, I was not surprised at all when I read Grace’s email.

Read entire post here: The Racist Breeding Grounds of Harvard Law School (you can read some of my own recollections of racism in the comments section by scrolling down to comment 51).

tags: harvard, racism