POPULARITY
5 episodes with Randall Kennedy
3 episodes with Randall Kennedy
3 episodes with Randall Kennedy
2 episodes with Randall Kennedy
2 episodes with Randall Kennedy
2 episodes with Randall Kennedy
2 episodes with Randall Kennedy
2 episodes with Randall Kennedy
2 episodes with Randall Kennedy
* Guest: Dr. Scott Bradley, Founder and Chairman of the Constitution Commemoration Foundation and the author of the book and DVD/CD lecture series To Preserve the Nation. In the Tradition of the Founding Fathers - FreedomsRisingSun.com * From the white guys who brought you "What is a Woman?" - Movie: Am I Racist? - Official Trailer - The Daily Wire! * Matt Walsh goes deep undercover in the world of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prepare to be shocked by how far race hustlers will go and how much further Matt Walsh will go to expose the grift, uncovering absurdities that will leave you laughing. * Mat interviews a Black author who has written a book called "The Hate Crime Hoax." * Walsh tries to get people to sign a petition to change the George Washington monument to the George Floyd Monument, promising to paint it black and make it 30 feet higher. Many people enthusiastically sign the petition, while several staunchly refuse to do so. * Book: 'Nigger' - The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word - Author Harvard Law School professor Dr. Randall Kennedy.
From questioning Kamala Harris's ethnic identity to his long-standing birther claims against Barack Obama, racist attacks against his political opponents have become part of Donald Trump's political playbook. Harvard professor and racial politics scholar, Randall Kennedy joins Bianna Golodryga to examine how Trump weaponizes racism to undermine his opponents. Then Nicholas Thompson and Emily Glazer unpack the dangers of misinformation on democracy, social media's role, and Musk's impact on the AI sector, as race riots rattle the UK. After escaping the Taliban's brutal crackdown, the Afghan Youth Orchestra is now rebuilding their lives in Portugal. Young musicians describe their unimaginable hardship, and discuss the power of music as a symbol of hope. From the archive, as Nicolas Maduro attempts to maintain his grip on power amid a contested election in Venezuela, Christiane Amanpour's 2014 conversation reveals his defiance in the face of mass protests and widespread claims of election fraud is nothing new. Finally, two-time Olympian, Yusra Mardini reflects on the resilience of the Refugee Olympic Team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Just as soon as Kamala Harris' presidential campaign began nearly four weeks ago, so too did the ugly, age-old racist attacks, with Donald Trump questioning his rival's race in a sit-down interview with Black journalists. Bianna speaks with Randall Kennedy, a law professor at Harvard, and an expert on the history of race and politics. Also on today's show: Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff, co-authors of “Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War”; Ahmad Sarmast, founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In December, the presidents of three universities were summoned to Congress for hearings about whether a climate of antisemitism exists on campuses. Politicians like Elise Stefanik made headlines, and two of the presidents, including Harvard's Claudine Gay, were soon out of their posts. The Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy wrote an essay for the London Review of Books about the reverberations of those events. “Folks were out to get Claudine Gay from the get-go,” he thinks, “and were going to use any openings with which to do that”—for reasons that had little to do with protecting Jews. Kennedy tells David Remnick about a lawsuit against Harvard that would equate opposition to Zionism with antisemitism, and render a range of thinkers (including many Jews) unteachable. And “this,” Kennedy asserts, “is very dangerous.” This segment is part of the New Yorker Radio Hour's episode devoted to the protests and the speech issues that college campuses have raised.
From Cambridge to Los Angeles and at dozens of schools in between, campuses are roiled by protest against American financial and military support for Israel's war in Gaza—and by university actions, including mass arrests, to suppress the protesters. There hasn't been a college protest movement as widespread since the Vietnam War. Apart from the violence in the Middle East, the protests also engage crucial issues of speech and academic freedom in the context of America's culture war. David Remnick looks at the turmoil and its reverberations through the lens of one campus, Harvard University, where much of the furor began. He speaks with a protester whose statement justifying the October 7th Hamas attack became a political flashpoint; two student journalists who covered the resignation of the university's president Claudine Gay; the law-school professor Randall Kennedy; and the former Harvard president Lawrence Summers.
Law Professor Randall Kennedy has taught at Harvard University for 40 years and written hundreds of thousands of words on race politics and the legal system. He is a vocal defender of affirmative action, so why this week did he write an essay about the 'resentment' caused by compulsory diversity statements? He spoke to UnHerd's Freddie Sayers about DEI, meritocracy and how good intentions so often turn into social coercion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Randall Kennedy – is a distinguished professor at Harvard Law. He joins Tavis to unpack the resignation of Claudine Gay as president and discuss the power struggle that could reshape the landscape of American academics
On Wednesday, November 29, the Harvard Student Chapter held a conversation, produced in partnership with the Harvard Alumni for Free Speech, featuring Prof. Randall Kennedy and Prof. Nadine Strossen to commemorate the 164th anniversary of Frederick Douglass's "Plea for Free Speech in Boston."Featuring:Prof. Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law SchoolProf. Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School; Former President, American Civil Liberties Union
Randall Kennedy discusses the essays in his collection Say It Loud!
Introduction by Greg Burnep ... What does affirmative action mean in 2023? ... Randy's distinction between “disadvantage” and “discrimination” ... Diversity's double-talk ... Did the Supreme Court say discrimination is allowed at military academies? ... Glenn: Affirmative action distracts us from bigger problems ... Affirmative action is an elite problem ... Affirmative action as an insurance policy ... The stigmatization of affirmative action beneficiaries ... Glenn: Affirmative action has been a net positive, but it's time to stop ... Q&A: Does historical injustice alone justify affirmative action? ... Q&A: Can and should colleges use loopholes to get around Students for Fair Admissions? ... Q&A: Does the “need” for affirmative action say something race or education? ... Q&A: What is the impact of SFFA beyond the university? ... Q&A: What about class-based affirmative action? ...
Introduction by Greg Burnep … What does affirmative action mean in 2023? … Randy's distinction between “disadvantage” and “discrimination” … Diversity's double-talk … Did the Supreme Court say discrimination is allowed at military academies? … Glenn: Affirmative action distracts us from bigger problems … Affirmative action is an elite problem … Affirmative action as an […]
Introduction by Greg Burnep ... What does affirmative action mean in 2023? ... Randy's distinction between “disadvantage” and “discrimination” ... Diversity's double-talk ... Did the Supreme Court say discrimination is allowed at military academies? ... Glenn: Affirmative action distracts us from bigger problems ... Affirmative action is an elite problem ... Affirmative action as an insurance policy ... The stigmatization of affirmative action beneficiaries ... Glenn: Affirmative action has been a net positive, but it's time to stop ... Q&A: Does historical injustice alone justify affirmative action? ... Q&A: Can and should colleges use loopholes to get around Students for Fair Admissions? ... Q&A: Does the “need” for affirmative action say something race or education? ... Q&A: What is the impact of SFFA beyond the university? ... Q&A: What about class-based affirmative action? ...
Five Americans have been released from prison in Iran. In exchange, the U.S. released five Iranian prisoners and gave Iran access to $6 billion in oil revenues that were previously frozen under sanctions. Borzou Daragahi, journalist and nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Middle East Program, joins us. And, American cyclist Sepp Kuss has won Vuelta A España, the Spanish version of the Tour De France. He is the first American to win in more than a decade. Kuss joins us to talk about the victory. Then, some of the Supreme Court's recent decisions have spurred comparisons to the decisions of the late 1800s. Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School, joins us to talk about these comparisons ahead of the new term beginning next month.
In a landmark ruling, The United States Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at US colleges, determining that race should not be a factor in achieving educational diversity. The controversial decision is expected to lower the admission rates of black and hispanic students at elite universities. Many supporters of the court's decision believe that affirmative action - that is, policies that aim to increase opportunities provided to underrepresented members of society - should be based on class, not race. Focusing on the disadvantaged of all races would create a more fair environment that is based on real need. Furthermore, they argue, affirmative action in its current form lowers standards for black students applying to universities, promoting different criterions based on race and therefore perpetuating a system of racism and inequality on campus. Others argue that replacing race-based affirmative action with economic need will hurt black students more as they will now be judged against a much bigger population percentage of poor whites and asians. Affirmative action was introduced in the 1960's in order to address the country's history of systemic racism towards black Americans that victims of class-based inequalities did not face. The decision by SCOTUS reverses years of racial progress and ignores the reality of racism in modern America, because, as Justice Ketanji Jackson wrote in her descent, “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” Arguing for the motion is John McWhorter, Associate Professor of English at Columbia University, and the author of Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America Arguing against the motion is Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law Professor and the author of For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law SOURCES: Associated Press The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths - @rudyardg. Tweet your comments about this episode to @munkdebate or comment on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/munkdebates/ To sign up for a weekly email reminder for this podcast, send an email to podcast@munkdebates.com. To support civil and substantive debate on the big questions of the day, consider becoming a Munk Member at https://munkdebates.com/membership Members receive access to our 10+ year library of great debates in HD video, a free Munk Debates book, newsletter and ticketing privileges at our live events. This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue - https://munkdebates.com/ Senior Producer: Ricki Gurwitz Editor: Kieran Lynch
Moet je het n-woord en woorden als smous uit het woordenboek schrappen? En uit historische uitgaven? En uit ons dagelijks taalgebruik? We praten erover met taalhistoricus Ewoud Sanders, die onlangs het boek Het n-woord publiceerde, over de geschiedenis van deze beladen term. En we spreken met Peggy Bouva, die in de podcast 'De plantage van onze voorouders' onderzoek deed naar het slavernijverleden van haar familie, over wat het n-woord voor haar betekent. • Ewoud Sanders is taalhistoricus en publiceerde zo'n vijftig boeken over taal. • Peggy Bouva maakte met Maartje Duin de podcast ‘De plantage van onze voorouders', waarin ze hun gezamenlijke koloniale geschiedenis onderzoeken. • Lex Fridman interviewt Randall Kennedy.Over taal gesproken is een samenwerking van het Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal (INT) en het Genootschap Onze Taal. Presentatie: Laura van Eerten en Raymond Noë. Concept & productie: Laura van Eerten. Muziek: Michel van der Zanden. Logo: Matthijs Sluiter (Studio Het Mes). Contact: overtaalgesproken@gmail.com
Why Jonathan's course “Culture in America” got canceled ... The fragility of liberal arts education ... Managing “CRT zealots” in the classroom ... Is there a future for free inquiry? ... John: Black middle-class students don't need affirmative action ... Is diversity the problem, or is it elitism? ... The virtues (and virtue signaling) of Randall Kennedy ...
Why Jonathan's course “Culture in America” got canceled ... The fragility of liberal arts education ... Managing “CRT zealots” in the classroom ... Is there a future for free inquiry? ... John: Black middle-class students don't need affirmative action ... Is diversity the problem, or is it elitism? ... The virtues (and virtue signaling) of Randall Kennedy ...
This week we welcome back Professor Randall Kennedy to help us pay tribute to three principled, uncompromising African American activists, Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report, human rights champion, Randall Robinson, and legendary actor, singer, and activist, Harry Belafonte.Randall Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He is the author of several books, including Contracts: Happiness and Heartbreak, For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law, and Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture.You've chosen three very interesting people [Randall Robinson, Harry Belafonte, and Glen Ford]. And I think that one thing that the listeners should keep in mind is that the three that you've chosen are all progressive; they are very different… Because the tent of progressivism should be a large tent— not everybody's going to think the same, and indeed there's going to be some friction between various tendencies among progressives.Randall KennedyI don't think that progressives pay enough attention to the people who have been in their camp. We don't pay enough attention to people who have passed away. We don't pay enough attention to recalling people who have been heroic in our midst. And, again, I say this as a person who is sometimes extremely critical of some of the people that you've mentioned.Randall KennedyWe need people like Glen Ford to pull in one direction uncompromisingly—because the corporate interests always pull in the other direction uncompromisingly—and then we need people who are in between and sometimes have to face the hard realities you've pointed out.Ralph NaderIn Case You Haven't Heard1. The Wall Street Journal and the Corporate Crime Reporter have announced that, following decades of citizen pressure, and action last year by Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Senator Richard Blumenthal, and Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, the Department of Justice has finally created a Corporate Crime Database. Under President Biden, the Justice Department has taken a tougher rhetorical stance on corporate crime, but as Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco notes, the department “cannot ignore the data showing overall decline in corporate criminal prosecutions over the last decade...We need to do more and move faster.” Among civic groups, The Center for Study of Responsive Law and Public Citizen lead the charge to create these corporate rap sheets and are already working to expand and strengthen this new resource for corporate crime data.2. If you live on the East Coast, you have likely experienced dangerous levels of air pollution in the last week due to smoke moving South from Canadian wildfires. Yet, the Lever reports that under current air quality rules, fossil fuel producers will not have to curb their emissions to offset this spike in air pollution because they have successfully lobbied for a loophole protecting themselves in the case of “exceptional events” outside their control. Environmental regulators are currently mulling a new rule to clamp down on this type of air pollution, but face stiff opposition from industry groups.3. The Washington Post reports that, in an exercise of his leverage in the tightly divided Senate, Bernie Sanders has vowed to oppose all Biden health nominees until the administration produces a “comprehensive” plan to lower prescription drug prices. Sanders' role as Chair of the Health Education Labor and Pensions committee means these nominees cannot advance without his blessing. This notably includes Biden's nominee for director of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. Sanders said “Politicians for years have talked about the high cost of prescription drugs, relatively little has been done, and it's time that we act decisively.”4. The Progressive International has issued a statement decrying the “soft coup” underway against left-wing President Gustavo Petro in Colombia. Their statement reads “Ever since the election of the country's first progressive government...Colombia's traditional powers have been organizing to restore an order marked by extreme inequality, environmental destruction, and state-sponsored violence.” The statement goes on to excoriate officials who have sought to undermine the Petro administration and “former generals, colonels, and members of the Colombian military [who] have not only proclaimed their opposition to President...Petro — but even marched outside Congress to call for a coup d'état against his government.” Signatories to this letter include over 400 political and industrial leaders, including Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn, Jean Luc Mélenchon, and Former Leftist President of Ecuador Rafael Correa.5. The City, a news site covering New York, reports that food delivery drivers in NYC have won a substantial wage increase. This victory caps off a 3-year long campaign by Los Deliveristas Unidos, and makes New York the “first major U.S. city to establish and implement pay requirements for delivery workers.” These workers currently take home about $11 per hour; this will go up to $17.96 an hour starting July 12th, and will increase to $19.96 per hour by 2025.6. In a surprise decision last week, the Supreme Court voted five-four in favor of Black voters in Alabama who argued the state had unlawfully diluted their voting power, POLITICO reports. Over a quarter of Alabama residents are Black, but the state crammed most Black Alabamians into a single congressional district following the 2020 census, running afoul of the Voting Rights Act. Many expected the ultra-conservative court to reject the challenge and further hollow out the VRA; instead, this ruling could significantly augment the chances of Democrats retaking the House in 2024.7. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has instituted a “highly successful” ban on opium. To cite one example, “In Helmand, by far Afghanistan's largest opium-producing province, the area of poppy cultivation was cut from over 129,000 hectares in 2022 to only 740 as of April 2023.” However, some in the West – including the US Institute for Peace – believe this could have disastrous implications for the Afghan economy. It remains to be seen whether the new government can find a viable economic alternative fast enough to offset these losses. The Taliban had previously banned opium cultivation when they held power in 2000 and 2001, and achieved a 90% reduction at that time.8. New York Governor Kathy Hochul is again licking her wounds after her nominee for the New York Power Authority was blocked by the State Senate, in a similar fashion as her nominee for the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state. Justin Driscoll, whom Hochul had appointed on an interim basis and was seeking to appoint permanently, raised red flags with New York Senate Democrats due to his ingratiation in conservative politics – Driscoll is a registered Republican who has ties to figures like Chris Christie and John Cornyn. Driscoll also opposed the Build Public Renewables Act and has been embroiled in accusations of racial discrimination during his time as general counsel for the Power Authority. On June 9th, POLITICO reported that Senate Democrats will not schedule a vote for Driscoll.9. Projectionists at an Alamo Drafthouse movie theater in New York City have filed an NLRB petition to unionize. However, instead of coming to the negotiating table, the theater chain sent out an internal email “notifying staff of the company's intention to do away with the projectionist position and replace it with a more expansive ‘technical engineer' role.” This reflects how the struggle for labor rights in entertainment goes far beyond Hollywood writers and actors. This from 1010 Wins.10. Last week, Henry Kissinger – President Nixon's controversial National Security Advisor and alleged war criminal – celebrated his 100th birthday. The Real News Network reports that this centennial bash was attended by some of the most prominent diplomatic figures in the country, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and head of the international development agency USAID, Samantha Power. Jonathan Guyer of VOX, documented many other attendees as well, including Larry Summers, Robert Kraft, General David Petreaus, CIA Director Bill Burns, and Michael Bloomberg. The gang's all here! Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
Randall Kennedy - Distinguished legal scholar, author, and professor at Harvard Law School - joins Tavis for a conversation that unpacks the recurring accusations of "reverse discrimination" and unfair preferences that have accompanied every major step towards addressing racial subordination and promoting equality. They will also examine the viability of race-neutral alternatives and the potential challenges they may face.
Randall Kennedy is a law professor at Harvard and author of many seminal books on race, law, history, culture, and politics. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings - Linode: https://linode.com/lex to get $100 free credit - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off EPISODE LINKS: Randall's Website: https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/randall-l-kennedy N*****: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word: https://amzn.to/3MbrXSC Say It Loud!: On Race, Law, History, and Culture: https://amzn.to/3MfQWUT For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law: https://amzn.to/3BASZxZ Race, Crime, and the Law: https://amzn.to/3pVtVyU PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (06:11) - The N-word (41:55) - The three N-words (1:08:28) - Education (1:21:31) - Critical race theory (1:32:05) - Racism and policing (1:39:25) - Racial profiling (2:08:57) - Racism in US history (2:26:55) - Affirmative action (3:10:22) - Martin Luther King Jr.
In 2003, Professor Brian Fitzpatrick published a piece titled "The Diversity Lie" in which he discussed the recently decided Grutter v. Bollinger case. Twenty years later, the Supreme Court is on the precipice of deciding two important affirmative action cases in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC. How has Professor Fitzpatrick's analysis held up against the test of time? How has the Supreme Court changed? What does the future hold for affirmative action? Can universities install a program of race-neutral affirmative action? Professors Brian Fitzpatrick and Randall Kennedy joined us to consider these questions and more as we reflect on the 20th anniversary of Grutter v. Bollinger.Featuring:--Professor Brian Fitzpatrick, Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt Law School--Professor Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor, Harvard Law School--[Moderator] Ted Frank, Director, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute
Carol sits down with Harvard Law School professor and author Randall Kennedy to talk about his journey as a single father. Randall raised his three (now young adult) children after losing his beloved wife Dr. Yvedt Matory when their children were young. Randall shares with Carol how he and his family coped with the grief and how vital their community was in getting them through their toughest times. He details how his parenting path as a single dad was built on a strong foundation laid by his late wife and included valuable lessons from his childhood, lessons which helped him raise his children to become confident and independent thinkers. Follow us at @GroundControlParenting and on www.groundcontrolparenting.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Colgate University's Constitution Day Debate brings to campus seasoned experts in their fields to debate topics facing the nation as a way to celebrate the national holiday and to encourage informed discourse among students. Colgate Professor of Political Science Stanley Brubaker introduces the history behind the annual event followed by the full recording of the debate. Moderated by Brubaker, the debate featured UCLA Jesse Dukeminier Professor of Law Richard H. Sander and Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of law at Harvard University debating two major cases before the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. Both cases raise the question of whether colleges and universities can consider race as a factor in admissions. The event was sponsored by Colgate's Forum for Constitutional Government and the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization.
For decades, scholar Randall Kennedy has been writing about race, culture and the law. “We are certainly much further from the racial promised land than I had thought that we were," he says. Randall Kennedy joins Meghna Chakrabarti.
This episode is the 2nd part of my series on the history, current status, and possible future of racial profiling. It covers the history of racial profiling from the mid 1990s to the late 2000s. In this episode, you'll learn: how local and state police departments, U.S. Customs, taxi services, and TSA were all engulfed in various controversies over the issue, with the New Jersey State Police ending up in the eye of the storm of a time; how the drug war and civil asset forfeiture made the problem harder to address; discussions over racial profiling in the 2000 Presidential Election; the surprising reason a Weekly Standard columnist criticized Rudy Giuliani on race issues; how the End Racial Profiling Act gained and then lost momentum right before and after 9/11; and attempts to address the issue in a post-9/11 world. You'll learn about dogged foes of racial profiling such as John Lewis, Amo Houghton, Jeffrey Goldberg, Randall Kennedy, Danny Glover, Larry King, Robert Francis, Frank Lautenberg, Jon Corzine, Russ Feingold, Laura Murphy, and then-state legislator Barack Obama. You'll learn about the villains of the conflict such as Christine Todd Whitman, Strom Thurmond, Alan Keyes, George F. Will, Heather MacDonald, National Review, and the Weekly Standard's William Tucker. And you'll learn about the people like George W. Bush and former NYPD and U.S. Customs Commissioner Ray Kelly whose views and legacy on racial profiling are tough to suss out. You'll learn about cops who defended racial profiling, such as Steve Young, Gary McLhinney, and Bernard Parks. And you'll learn about cops who stood against racial profiling, such as James Fyfe, Aaron Campbell, and (despite his flaws) Eric Adams.
Randall Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He has written widely about race and its effect on American society and the law. In this week's conversation, Randall Kennedy and Yascha Mounk discuss how racism in American life has changed and the ways in which it hasn't, why we should move towards a more fluid sense of individual identity, and why he remains optimistic about America. This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: podcast@persuasion.community Website: http://www.persuasion.community Podcast production by John Taylor Williams, and Brendan Ruberry Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google Twitter: @Yascha_Mounk & @joinpersuasion Youtube: Yascha Mounk LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Things seems super chill around education these days. Wait—do they? Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about the current state legislation being passed to ban the instruction of Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools, something that isn't happening. So since it's not happening, what is happening instead is banning the instruction of anything associated with race or racism. As the Brooklyn 99 folks like to say, cool cool cool cool cool. Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands Cite your sources: ABC4 Utah. (2021, May 4). What you need to know about Idaho's new critical race theory law. ABC4 Utah. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news/what-you-need-to-know-about-idahos-critical-race-theory-law/ Barakat, M. (2022, February 15). Youngkin looks to root out critical race theory in Virginia. AP NEWS. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://apnews.com/article/education-richmond-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-virginia-8ad5da65b9cb05265f2b8081c41827cd Bella, T. (2022, February 4). Black history month is not critical race theory, Alabama educator says in response to complaints. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/04/alabama-black-history-month-crt-schools/ Bittle, J., Pareene, A., Tomasky, M., Noah, T., & Shephard, A. (2022, March 20). The Fox News guest behind the Republican Frenzy over Critical Race Theory. The New Republic. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://newrepublic.com/article/162617/christopher-rufo-critical-race-theory-interview Cobb, J. (2021, September 20). The man behind critical race theory. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/20/the-man-behind-critical-race-theory Craig, T. (2022, March 11). Florida legislature passes bill that limits how schools and workplaces teach about race and identity. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/10/florida-legislature-passes-anti-woke-bill/ Dixon, K. (2022, March 14). Bill Banning 'divisive concepts' in schools passes Georgia Senate. Axios. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2022/03/14/bill-banning-divisive-concepts-schools-passes-georgia-senate Donahue, A. R. (2022, January 12). State Education Board passes measure countering GOP's 'critical race theory' bills ⋆ Michigan Advance. Michigan Advance. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://michiganadvance.com/2022/01/12/state-education-board-passes-measure-countering-gops-critical-race-theory-bills/ Guynn, J. (2022, March 15). Florida law will restrict how race is discussed. USA TODAY (USA), p. A5. Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/188BEDD20BC605D8. Herron, A. (2022, March 1). Indiana Senate kills CRT-inspired legislation that created outrage among educators, Black Hoosiers. The Indianapolis Star. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2022/02/28/hb-1134-indiana-senate-kills-crt-critical-race-theory-inspired-legislation/9323738002/ Jones, Z. C. (2022, March 10). Florida legislature passes "stop woke act," Second controversial education bill this week. CBS News. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-critical-race-theory-education-stop-woke-act/ Jones, S. (2021, July 11). How to manufacture a moral panic. Intelligencer. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/christopher-rufo-and-the-critical-race-theory-moral-panic.html Kiersz, A., & Gal, S. (2020, July 8). 26 simple charts to show friends and family who aren't convinced racism is still a problem in America. Business Insider. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.businessinsider.com/us-systemic-racism-in-charts-graphs-data-2020-6 Matzen, M. (2022, February 10). Education Committee votes to limit critical race theory instruction in South Dakota's public schools. Argus Leader. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/education/2022/02/09/critical-race-theory-crt-south-dakota-public-schools-legislature-limited/6728586001/ McGee, K. (2021, June 15). Texas "critical race theory" bill limiting teaching of current events signed into law. The Texas Tribune. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.texastribune.org/2021/06/15/abbott-critical-race-theory-law/ Meckler, L., & Dawsey, J. (2021, June 21). Republicans, spurred by an unlikely figure, see political promise in targeting critical race theory. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/06/19/critical-race-theory-rufo-republicans/ Messer-Kruse, T. (2022, February 16). How to sink anti-CRT bills. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-sink-anti-crt-bills?bc_nonce=jwfrpc6h01bmnrbftplf8&cid=reg_wall_signup Napsha, J. (2022, March 16). Norwin debate continues in regards to systemic racism, critical race theory. TribLIVE. Retrieved March 20 2022, from https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/norwin-debate-continues-in-regards-to-systemic-racism-critical-race-theory/ Ramjug, P. (2021, December 21). Seven out of 10 people don't know what critical race theory is, US poll finds. News@Northeastern. https://news.northeastern.edu/2021/12/23/critical-race-theory-survey/ Randall Kennedy on why critical race theory is important ❧ current affairs. Current Affairs. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/03/randall-kennedy-on-why-critical-race-theory-is-important Ray, R., & Gibbons, A. (2022, March 9). Why are states banning critical race theory? Brookings. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/07/02/why-are-states-banning-critical-race-theory/ Rufo, C. F. (2021, June 23). Washington Post tried to smear me for criticizing race theory - and failed spectacularly. New York Post. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://nypost.com/2021/06/22/washington-post-tried-to-smear-me-for-criticizing-race-theory-and-failed/ Wallace-Wells, B. (2021, June 18). How a conservative activist invented the conflict over critical race theory. The New Yorker. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory Sound effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCR8pZ2C7to - Brooklyn 99 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0sofJcByXE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4TAQF6ocLU - The Reid Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEtHS8Gp5zg - Gov. Tate Reeves https://twitter.com/thegoodliars/status/1455243036795998212 - Good Liars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FBh1MYyVO4 - Norwin BOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxc6iqRC-n8 - I Have a Dream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBXRdWflV7M - Tucker Carlson
Harvard Law Professor and author Randall Kennedy joins us to talk about the twentieth anniversary re-release of his book, which examines our nation's most abhorred racial slur, chronicling the word's history, the law and litigation around it and its cultural relevance.
Today on Boston Public Radio: We begin the show by talking with listeners about Boston's failed 2024 Olympic bid in the wake of the Beijing Olympics. Ghenya Grondin and Kate Porter discuss their experiences with longhaul COVID-19, and share resources for fellow COVID-19 longhaulers. Grondin is the owner of Sweet Ride Candy Co., which can be found on their website and on Instagram. Porter is the creator of C19RecoveryAwareness.com, a website that provides resources for long COVID patients. Charlie Sennott updates us on the latest news on Russia and Ukraine, as President Joe Biden warns of an imminent Russian invasion of the country. Sennott is a news analyst for GBH, where he also heads up the Groundtruth Project. Randall Kennedy discusses the 20th anniversary of his book on the legacy of the N-word, reflecting on how the word has evolved in the last two decades. Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. His book is an uncensored version of “N-word: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.” Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III share their thoughts on how to celebrate Black History Month, and discuss the history of the N-word. Rev. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour's African American Heritage Trail. Rev. Price is founding pastor of Community of Love Christian Fellowship in Allston, and the Inaugural Dean of Africana Studies at Berklee College of Music. Together, they host the “All Rev'd Up” podcast at GBH. Corby Kummer talks about solitary dining around Boston, and eating in the time of climate change. Kummer is executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. We wrap up the show by asking listeners to share their experiences of dining alone.
Michael offers a commentary on Spotify podcast host Joe Rogan's controversy over past comments and his promoting of misinformation regarding COVID-19, while musician Neil Young, and others, have pulled their catalogues from that platform, and Young is encouraging Spotify employees to work elsewhere. Original air date 8 February 2022.
In this episode of “Keen On”, Andrew is joined by Randall Kennedy, the author of “Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word - With a New Introduction by the Author”. Randall Kennedy served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. He teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations at Harvard Law School. Visit our website: https://lithub.com/story-type/keen-on/ Email Andrew: a.keen@me.com Watch the show live on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajkeen Watch the show live on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankeen/ Watch the show live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lithub Watch the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LiteraryHub/videos Subscribe to Andrew's newsletter: https://andrew2ec.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our panel of thought outlaws discuss Virginia's anti-CRT legislation that requires schools to teach the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and how these debates actually illustrate some of the key insights of CRT. Then we speak with Harvard Law School's Prof. Randall Kennedy, about his early criticisms of CRT in his 1989 article "Racial Critiques of Legal Academia."
Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy has been known for decades as a critic of Critical Race Theory, which was developed in part by his late colleague Derrick Bell. But Kennedy's critiques come from a position of intellectual respect, and over the years he has become more sympathetic to some of the central claims CRT makes about the pervasive and intractable nature of American racism. His new book Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture collects his essays from the past several decades, many of which deal with the question of how American racism has functioned historically, how it has morphed over time, and what a rational way to think about it is. In this wide-ranging conversation, he and Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson discuss:- The way Black intellectual thought has long had "optimistic" and "pessimistic" camps, and CRT fits squarely in with a long tradition of Black pessimism about racial progress- Why Prof. Kennedy thinks there are ample factual grounds for holding that pessimistic perspective, even as someone born in the Jim Crow South who has witnessed certain kinds of major progress during his lifetime- Why Donald Trump's birtherism was a sign of a deep ugly undercurrent of lingering racism that Kennedy does not expect to see disappear, and the disturbing ways that Republicans are rolling back important democratic gains- How law professors foolishly pretend the Supreme Court is politically independent and why we need to acknowledge that it is a powerful unaccountable institution seized by reactionaries- Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer have had completely delusional views of the role of politics on the court- The greatness of Thurgood Marshall, for whom Prof. Kennedy once clerked, and why Marshall was no more "political" than other justices - Why Prof. Kennedy has developed a deep respect for CRT scholar Derrick Bell in the years since Bell's death and why Bell was an impressive example of someone who mixed great scholarship with uncompromising activism Say It Loud! is available from Pantheon Books. Kennedy's essay on Derrick Bell is available on SSRN. Nathan's essay on Ginsburg's decision not to retire and the illusion of the apolitical court is here, and his essay on critical race theory is here. The Manhattan Institute panel on CRT that Prof. Kennedy was on is here.
There's one word in the English language that is the granddaddy of all taboo words. A word so bad that the majority of people in the world only refer to it as its first letter. Today Ron, JD, and Yolanda discuss the usage of that word in film. Email your thoughts to podcast@dungeonsndurags.com. Follow the hosts on social Ron on Twitter - twitter.com/BladeRonner Ron on IG - instagram.com/BlerdRonner JD on Twitter - twitter.com/thatJDCochran Yolanda on Twitter - twitter.com/rat_in_a_wheel Copyrights & Credits Music for the show was licensed from Artlist and curated from FreeMusicArchive.org. Creative commons songs included in this episode (in order of appearance): “Soul Challenger” by MC Cullah (CC BY) “What Does Anybody Know About Anything” by Chris Zabriskie (CC BY) “Wander and Ramble” by MC Cullah (CC BY) “MC Cullah's Guitar” by Cullah (CC BY) Clips used in this episode: Randall Kennedy interview on “Book Notes” © 2015 C-Span. Get the book. “Pulp Fiction” © 1994Miramax Clip of Roy Wood Jr. © 2021 Comedy Central Statement of Fair Use As an audio documentary series, we use movie, video, and music clips in this series under Fair Use. Unlike many who claim fair use as a blanket excuse to post someone else's content, we take artists' work very seriously. As such, we actually follow the law, transforming the work and/or minimizing use of clips for purposes of explanation, critique, education, or satire. Copyrighted music used to enhance the episode is purchased, or licensed under creative commons. Any inclusion of popular or copyrighted music not so licensed, is used sparingly under the guidelines of good fair use practices. For more information, we highly recommend “The Documentary Filmmaker's Best Practices of Fair Use.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Griff will talk about the setup, security, insurance crowd control issues, and more. Before Griff, Civil rights and Criminal Defense attorney A.Dwight Petitt discusses the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Getting us started Harvard Law Professor Dr. Randall Kennedy talks about his book, Race Crime & the Law. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Randy: “I feel torn and, frankly, bewildered” about the state of race in the US … Can we blame Trump for the tenor of racial discourse today? … Crediting the achievements of black Americans after Emancipation … Is the criminal justice system as discriminatory as it appears? … Glenn: We need to deracialize the conversation […]
Randy: “I feel torn and, frankly, bewildered” about the state of race in the US ... Can we blame Trump for the tenor of racial discourse today? ... Crediting the achievements of black Americans after Emancipation ... Is the criminal justice system as discriminatory as it appears? ... Glenn: We need to deracialize the conversation about policing ... Taking account of culture in debates about racial inequality ... Affirmative action with an asterisk ... Does affirmative action require lowering standards? ...
Randy: “I feel torn and, frankly, bewildered” about the state of race in the US ... Can we blame Trump for the tenor of racial discourse today? ... Crediting the achievements of black Americans after Emancipation ... Is the criminal justice system as discriminatory as it appears? ... Glenn: We need to deracialize the conversation about policing ... Taking account of culture in debates about racial inequality ... Affirmative action with an asterisk ... Does affirmative action require lowering standards? ...
Professor Kennedy talks about race, the Supreme Court and his new book, SAY IT LOUD!: ON RACE, LAW, HISTORY, and CULTURE
Listen now (84 min) | This week’s TGS features two incomparable guests: John McWhorter and Randall Kennedy. John, of course, needs no introduction. Randy is a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of many books, the latest of which is Say It Loud!: On Race, Law, History, and Culture This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at glennloury.substack.com/subscribe
I know this week everyone is expecting one of my conversations with John McWhorter. But due to some unforeseen events, we ended up shifting things around a bit. Next week you can expect to see John and I speak with Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy, where we’ll engage issues of systemic racism, among other topics. Two weeks after that, John and I will be back to have our own discussion about systemic racism. We said we wanted to formulate serious responses to those who believe systemic racism is still the cause of racial inequality in the US, and you can expect to see that in the coming weeks.For this week’s episode, I’m presenting a recent lecture I gave at Baylor University and the Q&A session that followed. The lecture distills some of my ideas about social capital, the bias narrative and the development narrative, and the problems that beset urban black communities. The students and professors also offered some fantastic questions that provoked me to think about intersectionality and mass incarceration, the language of racial discrimination, and whether my critiques of the bias narrative offer aid and comfort to the enemy. I’m grateful to Baylor for having invited me, and I’m pleased to be able to offer the lecture to you here.Note: If you’re listening to the free audio version of this conversation, you’ll notice that there are now ads. I explain why I’ve started to take on advertisers at the beginning of the episode. If you’d like to continue receiving the podcast without ads, you can subscribe below for access to the ad-free podcast feed, as well as monthly Q&As with John McWhorter and me, early access to TGS episodes, and other subscriber benefits. 0:00 A quick announcement 2:00 “Structural racism is an empty category” 4:35 The bias narrative vs. the development narrative10:43 Race as a social phenomenon 19:10 Racism is not the cause of behavioral problems in black communities 27:41 “White people cannot give black people equality” 32:31 Q&A: How has economic thinking about racism and the market changed? 39:20 Q&A: What strategies will help people engage in modes of development? 43:00 Q&A: What are the prospects for improvements? 48:54 Q&A: How has the language of racial discrimination changed? 53:12 Q&A: Is intersectionality a factor in racial inequality? 1:02:03 Q&A: Do Glenn's claims reinforce white prejudice against blacks? This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at glennloury.substack.com/subscribe
Host Ruben Navarrette interviews Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy — his former professor, as a Harvard undergraduate — about race in America in 2021 and his new book: “Say It Out: On Race, Law, History, and Culture.” Guest: Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School Professor and author of “Say It Loud: On Race, Law, History, and Culture”
Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law professor and author of a collection of essays entitled “Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture” joins us for the full hour to talk about his views on race, class, corporatism, Clarence Thomas, the “n-word,” racial optimism versus racial pessimism, and much more.
The Supreme Court is supposed to rule by the law alone. But Randall Kennedy says that doesn't always happen. “A very common misconception is that the Supreme Court is above politics." If the Supreme Court is too ideological, what should be done about it? Randall Kennedy and David Cole join Meghna Chakrabarti.
For decades, scholar Randall Kennedy has been writing about race, culture and the law. “We are certainly much further from the racial promised land than I had thought that we were," he says. Randall Kennedy joins Meghna Chakrabarti.
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode of Keen On, Andrew is joined by Randall Kennedy, the author of Say It Loud!: On Race, Law, History, and Culture, to discuss the key social justice issues of our time—from George Floyd to antiracism to inequality and the Supreme Court. Find more Keen On episodes and additional videos on Lit Hub's YouTube Channel! ________________________ Randall Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy is also a Trustee emeritus of Princeton University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Critical Race Theory,” also known as CRT, is a phrase that has become shorthand for just about any classroom instruction on racism, past or present. But what is this fight really about? What are these anti-CRT bills aiming to accomplish, and how will they affect schooling in the US? Amna Khalid discusses the rise of anti-CRT bills with Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy; Acadia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs; and former president of the ACLU, Professor Emerita Nadine Strossen of New York Law School.SPEAKER 1: Critical race theory is teaching that white people are bad.SPEAKER 2: We’re demonizing white people for being born.SPEAKER 1: This theory was never meant to be brought into grade schools, high schools at all. It’s actually taught in the collegiate atmosphere.SPEAKER 2: These are systemic things. Ignoring it perpetuates the problem. By acknowledging it, we can find solutions and we can address the problems and the inequality that exists in our country. SPEAKER 3: You gonna deliberately teach kids: “This white kid right here got it better than you because he’s white”? You gonna purposely tell a white kid, “Oh, well, black people were all down and suppressed”? How do I have two medical degrees and I’m sitting here oppressed? [cheers] How did I get that? [cheers]AMNA KHALID: Most parents of young schoolchildren are familiar with the stories--third graders in California are given an assignment: rank yourselves by power and privilege based on your racial identity. Parents in North Carolina say middle schoolers are forced to apologize in class to their peers for their privilege. In an elementary school in Manhattan, children are sorted by race for mandatory training. In some Buffalo schools, students are taught that all white people are guilty of implicit racial bias. Sometime towards the end of last year, parents and politicians freaked out, mostly conservatives, who see all this as a kind of liberal indoctrination of our youth. In at least 26 states around the country, Republican legislators have introduced what are now called anti-CRT bills. CRT stands for critical race theory, a phrase that has become shorthand for just about any classroom instruction on racism, past or present. But what is this fight really about? What are these bills aiming to accomplish and how will they affect schooling in the US? I spoke to three experts about the rise of anti-CRT bills. First is Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy, who says that although CRT was coined decades ago as a purely legal, academic term, it has now all but lost its original meaning. RANDALL KENNEDY: Now, if I'm in a seminar at my law school and we're talking about critical race theory, I'm thinking about a community of people, a community of thought that has its origins in the 1980s, that believes that liberal legalism was inadequate to get us to a state of racial justice. They’re people who believe that mere anti-discrimination would not suffice to redress the terrible injuries of racial oppression. Something much more activist, something much more deep-seated, had to be done to get us to where we needed to go. On the other hand, if we're just talking about on the street, if we're talking about television, if we're talking about radio today, for many people, especially for its most vocal critics, critical race theory is anything that they don't like that has to do with race. It's an open category and it's more of a slogan than anything else. KHALID: Let's move a little bit away from its origins and from the academic context and think about what it's come to mean today, particularly when we're referring to these anti-CRT bills. We've seen a rise in bills that have been drafted across the country, primarily in Republican-dominated states, where there is an attempt to banish, if you will, what they call teaching of critical race theory, particularly at the K-12 level. Now, as someone who is a scholar, a legal scholar, can powers that be do that? Is it legally sanctioned to stipulate what K-12 curriculum should be or is it in contravention of the First Amendment? KENNEDY: It can be done. It's a well-known tenet of American practice that public primary and secondary schooling is largely under the control of local political forces. It's deemed to be perfectly proper for primary and secondary schools, for instance, to inculcate patriotism. You know, that's viewed as uncontroversial. Of course you're going to inculcate patriotism. Of course you're going to inculcate various attitudes that the ascendant political forces in your jurisdiction want to be taught in schools and nourished and lauded. We want our youngsters to know about the Founding Fathers and the greatness of American democracy, et cetera, et cetera. Well, if you can do all of that, I mean, that's inculcation. This is another type of inculcation, or it's saying what we don't want taught. Well, you can do that. You can, for instance, have a school system in which you say, “We're going to banish the teaching of racist ideas.” And in fact, that's what some of these people, you know, are saying right now. They're terming critical race theory itself as a type of racism. And they're saying, “We don't want that taught.” Can that be done? Yeah, that can largely be done at the K-12 level. Yes. KHALID: There's nothing that prevents that kind of move from being undertaken.KENNEDY: That's right. It’s a political question. Basically from kindergarten to 12th grade, what you're taught in school is largely under the control of the local school board, the city school board, the county school board. It's a matter of local democratic politics. And so, it's a political struggle. KHALID: OK, so, Randy, now I'm going to ask you to take off your legal scholar hat and put on your hat of an educator who is concerned with how we train our students to think. So with that hat on, I'd like you to tell us, are you in support of anti-CRT legislation? KENNEDY: I'm appalled by it. In my view, what's going on is the latest iteration of a phenomenon that we have seen over and over and over again. In my view, this is analogous to what happened in the 1950s: the panic over communism, the panic over socialism. You'll note that those two words often find themselves in close proximity to critical race theory. People say, you know, “Critical race theory is Marxism. Critical race theory is socialism.” There's a long history of stigmatizing ideas that are dissident, especially ideas that are critical of the status quo. There's a long history of stigmatizing such ideas as communistic or socialistic or Marxist. And that's what's going on today. The courts, I don't think, are going to be our salvation. I think our salvation is going to be public opinion. And you asked me, “Well, you know, what should people be thinking?” People should be thinking, “How do I want my children to be trained?” I would think that people would want children to be critical thinkers, would want children to be introduced to all sorts of ideas, including ideas that they don't like, trained in such a way that children can have a critical, skeptical stance toward a wide range of ideas. That, it seems to me, is what we should want in our public schools. And we cannot have that if certain ideas are banished. Let the teachers introduce things that are called critical race theory and let's talk about it: “What do you think of this? How should this be assessed?” The art of assessment is what we should be inculcating in our history and in our social studies and in our civics classes. And we can't do that if we are in a panic and banish ideas that we think we don't like. KHALID: According to Randall Kennedy, critical race theory in 2021 means something very different from what its original proponents intended. Nowadays, the term is loaded. It is political. It means everything and says almost nothing about what is actually being taught in schools. But it's the term that we're stuck with for the time being. The more immediate question then becomes, what are these anti-CRT bills trying to achieve? Jeffrey Sachs teaches Middle Eastern politics at Acadia University in Canada and has been closely following the various legislation.JEFFREY SACHS: These efforts focus their attention on preventing K-12, and in some cases, public universities and colleges from engaging in certain kinds of speech in the classroom, assigning certain kinds of materials, and also, in some instances, preventing the kinds of trainings that schools can require teachers or staff to undergo as part of their jobs. And really, the long and short of it is that this is an attempt to prevent teachers from being trained in or discussing certain ideas that conservatives really hate. KHALID: And what are those ideas? SACHS: The list fluctuates. They tend to focus on things like the idea that one race or sex is inherently superior or inferior to another race or sex, or the idea that somebody, by virtue of their race or sex, is guilty or should feel shame on that basis. I don't think there are many people out there--I certainly, I hope not--who think that a person should feel shame or guilt on account of their race or sex. So, the ideas that are being targeted for censorship by these laws, many of them, when they're presented, they sound like a reasonable law. But when you kind of really drill down into how these laws are being written, you discover very quickly that they're far more sweeping and in some cases, far more sloppily drafted than probably they should be. And they would inevitably sweep up and censor all kinds of speech or classroom content that we want to have included, that we want to have protected. This is really a case where the politics of the issue, I think, are so powerful and the momentum is so great that legislators aren't really thinking clearly or if they are thinking clearly, they have malign intent because the result is laws that really are going to do a lot of damage to both K-12 and higher ed. KHALID: It may be constitutional in the K-12 context, yet that doesn't make it okay, and it doesn't mean that it doesn't come with a set of both anticipated and unanticipated consequences. There's nothing wrong in saying that teaching divisive concepts, which say things like, “If you're from a particular race you’re inherently superior or inferior,” is wrong, and we don't want that happening in our schools. Yet, the issue becomes very nebulous when we begin to think about definitions, what constitutes a divisive concept becomes contentious. SACHS: So, a good example is the law recently passed in Tennessee, which reads that a public school authority or public charter school shall not include or promote the following concepts as part of a course of instruction, and also that they may not use any supplemental instructional materials that include or promote the following concepts. And then it lists an array of concepts similar to the ones I described earlier. Now, the problem here is that there are all kinds of sound pedagogical reasons why a teacher might wish to include a concept in a course, even a very controversial concept. So an example might be that the teacher wishes to include a primary source written by an author who lived 100, 200, 300 years ago, at a time when certain kinds of divisive concepts were common currency. It might be useful, for instance, for the purposes of discussing historic discrimination or present-day discrimination for a teacher to cite a document that contains a divisive concept. If you pass a law, as Tennessee has, saying that teachers may not include such material in the course, then you are robbing students of their ability to confront and think intelligently about these ideas--ideas that they're bound to encounter at some point in their everyday lives. It should be the jobs of teachers to introduce concepts, no matter how divisive, so long as they do so in a responsible, neutral, and objective way. These laws, in many cases, do not draw that distinction. Instead, they ban any inclusion of these ideas. Tennessee’s is a good example. It bans the mere inclusion of these ideas, even if included objectively and discussed neutrally. That kind of sloppy drafting, if indeed it is sloppy and not intentional, is, I think, a real ticking time bomb. KHALID: The irony is that those who are pushing these laws are the ones who, until very recently, supported a president who was making precisely the kinds of speeches where certain groups were being seen as inferior and which would be very much part of your civics education if you were trying to engage in an educational discussion about democracy in America. SACHS: Absolutely. I mean, under this law, there's many Trump speeches that I'm sure would be ineligible for inclusion in a Tennessee classroom. Setting aside my own opinions about Donald Trump, I think that there is very valid pedagogical reasons for why a civics teacher might want to include a speech by the president of the United States. It's just a no brainer to me. Whether they mean to or not--and I always try to give legislators the benefit of the doubt, but whether they mean to or not, this law, which is currently on the books in Tennessee, would forbid the inclusion of a speech by the president. That seems to me to be insane.KHALID: But hang on, Jeff. People in favor of these bills often point out that teaching at the K-12 level is already highly regulated. Take creationism. You can't make that part of the science curriculum. And for the most part, people are okay with that. So what's wrong with banning CRT then, if that's something we want to keep out of the classroom? SACHS: There's a good reason why this is not a good analogy, because the fact of the matter is we do not ban creationism from public schools, right? We ban the promotion of creationism. We ban, under the Establishment Clause--jurisprudence--Teachers may not promote the idea that the earth or the cosmos was created by a deity. However, teachers are free to discuss that idea. And in fact, they have to if they're going to discuss things like Greek and Roman mythology or Dante's Divine Comedy. So there has to be room in our law and in our jurisprudence to allow people to discuss the idea of creationism so long as they do so in a neutral and objective way. We should extend that same basic courtesy and framework to critical race theory and its attendant ideas. So, people should be allowed in the classroom to discuss the idea that black people are inherently superior or inferior to white people, if only for the reason that that idea pops up in important documents and important conversations throughout history and in the present day. A teacher would be failing in his or her duty if they did not prepare students for the eventuality that they will encounter that idea outside the classroom. People should also be able to discuss the concepts of critical race theory without saying critical race theory is the truth. KHALID: Jeffrey, I'm going to actually move the conversation to discuss a different context, which might help elucidate some of the issues that we would face in the US. And it's one that I feel you're well-equipped to comment on. So, I come from Pakistan. And Pakistan is a very different society, one that has been looked upon in the US as a society that is backwards. And one of the key issues is we have blasphemy laws, which prevent the discussion of anything that insults Muhammad. Now, what constitutes a blasphemy is the issue over here. And in colleges and universities, I remember growing up not being able to ask genuinely inquisitive questions because they were being shut down because they were seen as blasphemous. So, for instance, Mohammad does X, Y, and Z and a single question like, “Well, why was this the best option?” or “Why did he choose to do this?” would be met with such irate censure from the teacher, who clearly did not want to go there for reasons that this could have implications should this be reported outside of class. And I feel like the US discussion about bills about CRT would benefit immensely--we could elucidate the ill effects of these if we just look a little beyond our shores to see what's going on in other countries. You study the Middle East. SACHS: That's such a fascinating comparison. And I think it really does kind of cast a bit of relief, what you're talking about. There's a famous case from the early 1990s in Egypt where something similar to what you're describing happened, where a university professor--of course, academic freedom is severely circumscribed in Egypt then and now. And in the early 1990s, this university professor described the Koran as a historical creation, that it reflected the events of its time and is not necessarily a universal and eternal document the way kind of orthodox Islamic theology presents it to be. For this, for engaging and considering this kind of critical view of the Koran, he was fired. He was prosecuted. He was declared by the courts to be an apostate, and his marriage to his wife, who, at least according to the courts, was still a Muslim in good standing, was annulled, and the two of them had to actually flee the country. Now, that's a very famous and thankfully, at least, a very extreme example, even in the context of Egypt, where these issues can be so sensitive. But it definitely highlights the idea that the moment you fail to draw a distinction between the discussion of an idea and its promotion, then you are robbing teachers and students of the opportunity to confront and critically consider certain ideas. So, while I don't think we in the United States or Canada or wherever face a similar kind of punishment if we run afoul of these anti-CRT laws, the threat is there and the self-censorship will be too. So, there we will definitely see in America teachers (and frankly, in many cases professors as well, because academic freedom is only as powerful under the law as the people who enforce it), at all levels, we will see a kind of self-censorship and a kind of terror in many cases of running afoul of these texts. KHALID: As Jeffrey Sachs suggests, many of these bills do not make a distinction between explaining an idea and endorsing it. But that's just one problem with how these bills are drafted. Nadine Strossen is professor emerita at New York Law School and former president of the ACLU. She takes issue with the way these bills invoke the concept of divisiveness. NADINE STROSSEN: The concept of divisiveness is being bandied about as if it is inherently negative. And that is very dangerous because divisiveness applies to ideas that people disagree with, right? Any time somebody says something controversial or provocative or unpopular, one of the stigmatizing accusations is, “Oh, you're engaging in divisiveness.” Or if you say something critical of government policy or, heaven forbid, of school policy--“Oh, don't be so divisive.” Well, what's the opposite of divisiveness? It's uniformity. It's homogeneity. It's conformity. And that's the opposite of the critical thinking toward which I think we should be striving if we are to educate our young citizens. And interestingly enough, in the Supreme Court's most recent student free speech case from the summer of 2021, the Mahanoy case, the Supreme Court actually said that the school itself has an interest in making sure that students have the right to engage in unpopular expression. That could be, in other words, divisive expression. And not only that the students have that right, but the school even has a duty to teach students the importance of exercising and defending unpopular speech in particular. And that would certainly apply to divisive speech. Now, I also want to go back to the 1969 Tinker case where Mary Beth Tinker and a number of other students wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War in the early 1960s, at a time when the war was still very popular, when critics of the war were very unpopular, were assumed to be traitors to the United States and unpatriotic. And it was very upsetting expression because many parents and siblings of these school kids and teachers were off fighting and dying in Vietnam. A recent alum of the school had recently been killed in Vietnam. So this was very divisive emotionally as well as politically. And the school cited those concerns in saying, “Well, that's disruption and we can't have that in the public schools.” And the Supreme Court said, “No, no, no, no, no. Freedom for ideas, especially about matters of public affairs”--That's true for CRT, deals with matters of public affairs--“is critically important. If we were to say that the mere fact that speech can be divisive or upsetting, either personally or politically, that that's not a basis for allowing it to be protected, then we are teaching the wrong lessons about citizenship to these future voters and future leaders of our country.”KHALID: I'm actually really glad that you brought that up, because I think one of the hallmarks of democracy is precisely to not just allow for or tolerate, but to actually foster dissent, to create spaces where dissent is possible. As an educator, what I see happening with these bills is that they reek of an authoritarianism which is trying to produce the kind of conformity that fundamentally hollows out democratic institutions. And it's terrifying. When the public school system is destroyed is when you begin to see the downfall of a society. And it troubles me deeply. STROSSEN: You know, without free thinking and critically thinking and debating and discussing citizens, our democracy is going to crumble because it depends on we, the people, to wield our sovereign power. We can't do that in an informed, meaningful way unless we have nurtured and respected dissent.KHALID: I want to end with Professor Randall Kennedy, who believes that there is a direct line between laws that stifle open inquiry and the very health of our civic society. KENNEDY: The quality of our education is intimately tied up with the quality of our democracy. All of the leading theorists of democracy have talked about the importance of public education. They are bound up with one another. K-12 is the foundation of our educational system. What happens in K-12, tremendously important. In a democracy, if the people rule, it's very important for the people to make decisions about our health, about the use of military force, about all of the things that are significant. Well, if you have a lot of ignorance out there, if you have, out there, people who have not been trained to make wise assessments, if you have, out there, masses of people who really don't have the ability to separate disinformation from good, useful information, the fanciful from the realistic, well, a society that's governed by a badly educated populace is a society on its way down, which is why, you know, the struggle over the schools is so important. KHALID: As a mother of two young boys, I, too, am deeply invested in how racism is addressed in our schools. I definitely don't want my kids coming home and saying things like, “Mama, we were told today that white people are oppressing us.” That's not what I would consider an education. But if legislation is not the answer, and I firmly believe that it's not, then what can parents do to protest indoctrination in schools? We'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue. You can leave a written comment on BooksmartStudios.org or email a voice memo to banished@booksmartstudios.org.If you like what you heard today and want more exclusive content, including access to my extended conversation with Nadine Strossen and an exclusive discussion with Greg Lukianoff, the president and CEO of FIRE and coauthor of Coddling of the American Mind, please consider becoming a paying subscriber to Booksmart Studios. Subscribers get transcripts, extended interviews, and bonus segments. Also, check out my sister podcasts by Booksmart Studios: John McWhorter's Lexicon Valley and Bob Garfield's Bully Pulpit. Please comment and help us spread the word. The success of Booksmart and the impact of our work depends as much on you as on us. Banished is produced by Matthew Schwartz and Mike Vuolo. And as always, I am Amna Khalid. Cheerio. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit banished.substack.com/subscribe
The Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy's new book, “Say It Loud!,” collects 29 of his essays. Kennedy's opinions about the subjects listed in the book's subtitle — race, law, history and culture — tend to be complex, and he's not afraid to change his mind. He says on the podcast that there's “no shame” in admitting you're wrong, and that he does just that in the book when he finds it appropriate.“I thought that the United States was much further down the road to racial decency than it is,” Kennedy says. “Donald Trump obviously trafficked in racial resentment, racial prejudice in a way that I thought was securely locked in the past. This has had a big influence on me. I used to be a quite confident racial optimist. I am not any longer. I'm still in the optimistic camp — I do think that we shall overcome — but I'm uneasy. I'm uneasy in a way that was simply not the case, let's say, 10 years ago.”Mary Roach visits the podcast to discuss her new book, “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law.” It's impossible to choose just one moment to highlight from this interview, which includes but is not limited to the following subjects: caterpillars called into court, moose crash test dummies, and how to distinguish (and why you would want to) between a real and fake tiger penis.Also on this week's episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history as it celebrates its 125th anniversary; Elizabeth Harris has news from the publishing world; and Jennifer Szalai and John Williams talk about books they've recently reviewed. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed by the critics this week:“The Contrarian” by Max Chafkin“Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
Celebrated for ''his courage and his convictions'' in tackling sensitive issues, Randall Kennedy is ''a member of that small coterie of our most lucid big thinkers about race'' (The Washington Post). The Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School, he formerly held positions at the United States Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, where he clerked for Thurgood Marshall. His many books include Interracial Intimacies, The Persistence of the Color Line, For Discrimination, and Sellout. In Say it Loud!, Kennedy offers a collection of provocative essays about George Floyd, birtherism, Clarence Thomas, antiracism, and more. (recorded 9/21/2021)
In his new book Say It Loud, acclaimed Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy chronicles his reactions over the past quarter-century to arguments, events and people that have compelled him to put pen to paper. Three beliefs that are sometimes in tension with one another infuse these pages. First, Professor Kennedy says a massive amount of cruel racial injustice continues to beset the United States, an ugly reality that Kennedy says has become alarmingly obvious with the ascendancy of Donald J. Trump and the various political, cultural and social pathologies that he and many of his followers display and reinforce. Second, Kennedy observes there is much about which to be inspired when surveying the African American journey from slavery to freedom to engagement in practically every aspect of life in the United States. Third, he says an openness to complexity, paradox and irony should attend any serious investigation of human affairs. Join a compelling conversation with this acclaimed legal scholar and public intellectual about what the past 25 years tell us about the future of race relations in America. SPEAKERS Randall Kennedy Michael R. Klein Professor, Harvard Law School; Author, Say It Loud In Conversation with Sheryl Davis Executive Director, San Francisco Human Rights Commission In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 15th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In his new book Say It Loud, acclaimed Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy chronicles his reactions over the past quarter-century to arguments, events and people that have compelled him to put pen to paper. Three beliefs that are sometimes in tension with one another infuse these pages. First, Professor Kennedy says a massive amount of cruel racial injustice continues to beset the United States, an ugly reality that Kennedy says has become alarmingly obvious with the ascendancy of Donald J. Trump and the various political, cultural and social pathologies that he and many of his followers display and reinforce. Second, Kennedy observes there is much about which to be inspired when surveying the African American journey from slavery to freedom to engagement in practically every aspect of life in the United States. Third, he says an openness to complexity, paradox and irony should attend any serious investigation of human affairs. Join a compelling conversation with this acclaimed legal scholar and public intellectual about what the past 25 years tell us about the future of race relations in America. SPEAKERS Randall Kennedy Michael R. Klein Professor, Harvard Law School; Author, Say It Loud In Conversation with Sheryl Davis Executive Director, San Francisco Human Rights Commission In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on September 15th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michael and guest Randall Kennedy have a nuanced conversation about race, and the various terms black people have used to identify themselves.
Bakari is joined by Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy to talk about how clerking for Thurgood Marshall shaped his career (2:59), the legacy of Barack Obama (13:02), and the competing theories on how best to eradicate racism in America (21:42). Host: Bakari Sellers Guest: Randall Kennedy Executive Producer: Jarrod Loadholt Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Michael and guest Randall Kennedy have a nuanced conversation about race relations including respectability politics, problems in policing, and the backlash against "critical race theory".
James and Al are joined by Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy to look at the Democratic Party's best strategies for approaching issues of race, policing and criminal justice. Will they be able to continue inspiring the wider electorate without scaring off centrist and independent voters? Or will 2022 be about who best calms our fears? Email your questions to James and Al at politicswarroom@gmail.com or tweet them to @politicon. Make sure to include your city, we love to hear where you're from! Get More From This Week's Guest: Professor Randall Kennedy Harvard Law https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10470/Kennedy Books By Professor Randall Kennedy https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/15433/randall-kennedy/ Please Support This Week's Sponsors: RISE To try the Rise App for free for 7 days, go to: https://www.risescience.com/warroom HELLO FRESH For up to 14 free meals plus free shipping, use code: Warroom14 at: https://www.hellofresh.com/pages/podcast?c=WARROOM14&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=cpm&utm_campaign=4020201510podcast&utm_content=warroom14&dm=meals&featured=family&mealsize=3-4
American history is being replaced with a polarizing version according to Woodson Center founder and president Robert Woodson. He's interviewed by Harvard Law professor and author Randall Kennedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A discussion about modern liberal approaches to free speech on campuses. The conversation is hosted by Amna Khalid, Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carleton College, and features AFA members Randall Kennedy and Jonathan Zimmerman. Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School and the author of several books, most recently For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law. Zimmerman is Professor of History of Education and the Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and is the author of several books, including his most recent, Free Speech: And Why You Should Give a Damn.
Rights are a sacred part of American identity. Yet they were an afterthought for the Framers, and early American courts rarely enforced them. Only as a result of the racial strife that exploded during the Civil War—and a series of resulting missteps by the Supreme Court—did rights gain such outsized power. The result is a system of legal absolutism that distorts our law and debases our politics. Over and again, courts have treated rights conflicts as zero-sum games in which awarding rights to one side means denying rights to others. Eminent legal scholar Jamal Greene reveals how the explosion of rights is dividing America, and shows how we can build a better system of justice.
Since the death of George Floyd in May of 2020, calls for racial justice have spread rapidly throughout the United States and beyond. As they search for solutions to the deeply complex issues around race in America, many schools, organizations, and corporations have embraced the ideas of best selling author, Ibram X. Kendi, whose best known for his book, "How to Be an Antiracist." In the spirit of exploring diverse viewpoints, we bring you a blog by Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, Associate Professor of Educational Studies at Carleton College. The piece is called “Why Ibram Kendi's Antiracism is So Flawed.” To engage deeper with Snyder's ideas, check out our related posts “To be Sensible About Race is ‘Not Blaming the Victim'” by John McWhorter, “On the Authority of Experience in Black Thought by Randall Kennedy,” and “The Importance of Intrapersonal Empowerment in American Race Race Relations” by Erec Smith. Stay up to date with Jeff on Twitter @JeffreyASnyder. For comments and questions email communications@heterodoxacademy.org. This episode was hosted by Zach Rausch. The artwork was inspired by Snyder's piece and was created by Lexi Polokoff. You can follow her on Instagram @lexipolokoffart.
For the past few months at Heterodox Academy, we've been focusing on the contributions of Black scholars, the diversity of perspectives among them, and the tensions around representation in institutions of higher learning. In this episode, we bring to you Randall Kennedy, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and his blog piece “On the Authority of Experience in Black thought.” To engage deeper with Kennedy's ideas, check out our related posts “To be Sensible About Race is ‘Not Blaming the Victim'” by John McWhorter, “Arguments for and Against Capitalism in the Black Intellectual Tradition” by Fabio Rojas, and “The Importance of Intrapersonal Empowerment in American Race Race Relations” by Erec Smith. For comments and questions email communications@heterodoxacademy.org. This episode was hosted by Zach Rausch. The artwork was inspired by Randall's piece and was created by Lexi Polokoff. You can follow her on Instagram @lexipolokoffart.
Five years after Heterodox Academy's founding in 2015, we took the opportunity to reflect on what the future of heterodoxy in the academy looks like, with four esteemed thought leaders: Nadine Strossen, Randall Kennedy, Nicholas Christakis and Jeffrey Adam Sachs. Along with host Amna Khalid and opening remarks by HxA Chair and co-founder, Jonathan Haidt, we explored what we have learned from the past five years, the challenges that lie ahead, and future opportunities to further HxA's mission of promoting viewpoint diversity, open inquiry, and constructive disagreement in higher education. Original event date: December 16, 2020. Video of the event can be viewed here. For more HxA blogs, events, tools and resources, please visit us at: https://heterodoxacademy.org/ Check out our other podcast, Heterodox Out Loud: the best of the HxA blog, here.
In this episode we talk with Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy about the legal case that resulted when the segregated public swimming pools in Mississippi's capital city were shut down rather than integrated. Kennedy clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and was awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Race, Crime, and the Law.
ColorBold Podcast - with Marcia Carmichael-Murphy, LaRhonda Mathies, & Erica Young
Episode 5, Racialized WTF: The Professional Edition. In this episode, we share experiences of “Racialized WTF” workplace moments – times when we have been surprised and disturbed by racist comments made by youth and adults in our professional lives. We reference resources listed below. Some of our liberation lessons include being ready to disrupt racism in conversations – both outright racism and coded language, empowering others to do the same, and continuing the conversation about racism in ongoing and intentional ways. Randall Kennedy book MCM references: https://bookshop.org/books/nigger-the-strange-career-of-a-troublesome-word-vintage-books/9780375713712 Library of Congress Slave Narratives: https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/ Learning for Justice Speak Up Pocket Card: https://www.learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/general/speak_up_pocket_card_2up.pdf Rain Rain Sleep App - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rain-rain-sleep-sounds/id478687481 Twitter Follow: @Brad_Carpenter – Mindfulness group for educators --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/colorbold502/message
Randall Kennedy, JD is a Harvard Professor of law. He teaches courses on Contracts, Civil Rights, Racial Relations and the Law, and Constitutional Law. Professor Kennedy has written several books and scholarly publications. Including the forthcoming, “Say it Loud On Race, Law, History and Culture.” He has studied at University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and received his J.D. from Yale Law School. He also was an editor for the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he served as a law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall and served on the NAACP Legal Defensive Fund. You can learn more about Professor Kennedy from his interviews on C-SPAN, “Common Law” podcast on UVA Law, The American Prospect and CNN. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/StateofEducation/support
Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy discusses past and present visions for a “promised land” on race, and what law can do to shape it.
On November 12, 2020, the Federalist Society hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The panel covered "Law, Social Justice, Wokeness, and Protests: Where Do We Go From Here?".Historically, the rule of law and the concept of justice it represents supply two key roots of the American experiment. Some think the ideology underlying many of the recent protests challenges this experiment at its core and that its concept of justice arguably differs from that of our Framers. Indeed for some social justice advocates the concepts of the rule of law, justice, reason and discussion all are suspect at best and tools of oppression at worst. Are the protesters who hold this ideology reform minded or revolutionary? Do the critics of this movement underestimate the powerful currents behind the protests? What are possible or desirable responses to this challenge?Featuring:Prof. Randy E. Barnett, Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center Prof. Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law SchoolMr. Eugene B. Meyer, President and CEO, The Federalist Society (representing Prof. John O. McGinnis)Prof. John O. McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor of Constitutional Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of LawProf. Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School; Former President, American Civil Liberties UnionModerator: Hon. Kenneth K. Lee, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit*******As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speakers.
On this week's episode of The Podvocate, Olivia & Lenny explore the topic of “the legal imagination” with nationally-renowned Harvard Law professor and author Randall Kennedy. This is the first episode of a three-part series exploring the role of imagination in the law and how it might be used to rethink “objective” legal principles, processes and methods we rely on. This project has been inspired by Derrick's Bell’s book "And We are Not Saved" and Patricia Williams’ book "The Alchemy of Race and Rights." In this episode, Professor Kennedy speaks to the history that has created these principles, their implications and his own vision on what we might reimagine in the legal system and beyond. Professor Kennedy also speaks about his relationship with Derrick Bell and their disagreement about what can be what is possible given the realities of the world we live in. If you are interested in knowing more about Professor Kennedy, check out his recent article entitled "Derrick Bell & Me" available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3350497 or one of his many other publications: Race, Crime, and the Law; Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal; For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law; The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency.
Randall Kennedy and Mike Davis talk to Adam Shatz about the results of the US elections. They consider the achievement of Stacey Abrams in Georgia, why the pandemic didn’t make much difference, how Democrats failed to understand changing Latino demographics, the role of progressives in Biden’s victory, and the intransigent, exurban core of the Republican base.Find more on the US elections in the LRB on the episode page for this podcast: https://lrb.me/kennedydavispodSubscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://mylrb.co.uk/podcast20b See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Fifty years ago, James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," released the iconic song, "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." It was released in August 1968, just four months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Randall Kennedy, a Harvard law professor, said he remembers when he first heard the song. The funk- and soul-inspired hit was like nothing he had heard before — especially at a time in which Kennedy said overt "colorism," or the preference for lighter skin color, was prevalent in the black community. It is one of the landmark cultural texts of the 1960s. The Black Liberation Movement had a variety of fronts. One front was outward facing challenging white supremacy. The other front, however, and a very important front was the inner struggle in black America to rehabilitate itself, reclaim itself. The basis of Black Power is various ideologies that aim at achieving self-determination for black people in the U.S. Black power dictates that blacks create their own identities despite being subjected to pre-existing societal factors. The first popular use of the term "Black Power" as a political and racial slogan was by Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) and Willie Ricks (later known as Mukasa Dada), both organizers and spokespersons for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Now Fifty years later , Beyonce comes now and says in the midst of civil unrest , Black Lives matter and A crazy Trump in office and declares “Black is KING
Harvard Law professor and bestselling author Randall Kennedy's newest book, "For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action and the Law," is a concise and deeply personal account of the policy and history of affirmative action. The book analyzes key arguments, pro and con, critiquing the impact of Supreme Court decisions, and pondering the policy's future in American society.
Explore effective ideas for reaching, teaching, and succeeding with boys of color. Hear experts Joseph Nelson of Swarthmore College, Randall Kennedy of Harvard Law School, and Jack Pannell of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys (United States) speak from experience and research about the myriad issues to consider. Learn about the importance of this work in schools, the challenges boys of color face pursuing education, and the strategies schools can employ to become more inclusive spaces. Stay tuned for part two of this episode coming soon. We welcome your voice notes in response to IBSC Exploring Boys' Education episodes. Leave a comment or highlight how you're using the podcast in your school. Please send WhatsApp voice notes to Bruce Collins at +27 71 8911 898 or email voice memos to IBSC@theibsc.org. We'd like to feature as many of your voices as possible in future podcast episodes. Dr. Joseph Nelson · Prof. Randall Kennedy · Jack Pannell · IBSC
International Boys' Schools Coalition — Explore effective ideas for reaching, teaching, and succeeding with boys of color. Hear experts Joseph Nelson of Swarthmore College, Randall Kennedy of Harvard Law School, and Jack Pannell of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys (United States) speak from experience and research about the myriad issues to consider. Learn about the importance of this work in schools, the challenges boys of color face pursuing education, and the strategies schools can employ to become more inclusive spaces. Stay tuned for part two of this episode coming soon. We welcome your voice notes in response to IBSC Exploring Boys’ Education episodes. Leave a comment or highlight how you’re using the podcast in your school. Please send WhatsApp voice notes to Bruce Collins at +27 71 8911 898 or email voice memos to IBSC@theibsc.org. We’d like to feature as many of your voices as possible in future podcast episodes. Dr. Joseph Nelson · Prof. Randall Kennedy · Jack Pannell · Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys
Affirmative action is under attack. A lawsuit filed against Harvard University might end the practice altogether. Professor Randall Kennedy of Harvard University acknowledges some of the costs of affirmative action but considers it ultimately a “positive good,” a moral necessity, and a legally defensible practice. One of the problems, he explains, is that liberals have framed affirmative action as a “win” for all, which opened the practice to attacks from conservatives who define it as an unjustified use of preferences where some win, and others lose out. Kennedy explains why affirmative action is the responsible choice in our nation burdened by a history of racial injustice – and how his own thinking has evolved in the decade from the inauguration of Barack Obama to the state we are in now. Professor Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School, and the author of For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law (2013).
ABOUT THIS EPISODE The utterance and writing of gendered and racial or ethnic slurs has often evoked controversy. My philosopher colleague Lauren Ashwell taken up slurs as a subject of scholarly inquiry. In this episode, we sit for a 90-minute conversation about such issues as what makes a slur a slur, whether slurs can be reclaimed by members of the target group, and why the study of slurs matters. LINKS --Lauren Ashwell's personal website (https://sites.google.com/site/lashwell/) --"Gendered Slurs," by Lauren Ashwell (requies JSTOR access) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24871341.pdf) --"CNN's Brooke Baldwin Chastises Trump Critic For Using N-Word On The Air," by Oliver Gettell, Entertainment Weekly (https://ew.com/article/2016/11/22/cnn-brooke-baldwin-guest-n-word/) --Myisha Cherry's interview with Luvell Anderson, about slurs, on The Unmute Podcast (http://www.unmutepodcast.co/season-2/4252016/episode-014-luvell-anderson-on-slurs) --Luvell Anderson's Syracuse profile (http://thecollege.syr.edu/people/faculty/pages/phi/anderson-luvell.html) --"Kreayshawn's White Girl Mob & The N-Word," by Brandon Soderberg, Spin (https://www.spin.com/2011/08/kreayshawns-white-girl-mob-n-word/) --"A History of Outrage Over the Word 'Pākehā'," by Branko Macetic, The Spinoff (https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/03-03-2018/a-history-of-outrage-over-the-word-pakeha/) --nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, by Randall Kennedy (https://www.amazon.com/Nigger-Strange-Career-Troublesome-Word/dp/0375713719) --"SlutWalks Sweep The Nation," by Laura Stampler, HuffPost (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/20/slutwalk-united-states-city_n_851725.html) --"An Open Letter from Black Women to SlutWalk Organizers," contributed by Susan Brison, HuffPost (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-brison/slutwalk-black-women_b_980215.html) --"Is The Word 'Queer' Offensive? Here's A Look At Its History In The LGBTQA+ Community," by Marissa Higgins, Bustle (https://www.bustle.com/articles/139727-is-the-word-queer-offensive-heres-a-look-at-its-history-in-the-lgbtqa-community) --Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, by Kate Manne (https://www.amazon.com/Down-Girl-Misogyny-Kate-Manne/dp/0190604980) Special Guest: Lauren Ashwell.
The Current Affairs panel discusses what the end of racism and sexism might look like, legal star Ian Samuel enters the Lefty Shark Tank to pitch Supreme Court packing, and we all share our favorite historical what-ifs. (Plus, the segment breaks are haunted by disturbing 20th century ghosts!) Further reading on racial and gender utopias: Matt Bruenig and Economic Policy Institute have good data on the racial wealth gap here and here. The New York Times Magazine had a report this past spring on the crisis in black maternal health. Data on the gender gap in government is here and gender and racial pay gap information is here. We also read two conservatives in preparation for this episode: Michael Lind on the melting pot and John McWhorter on identity politics. The question that inspired this segment was asked by Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy, who wrote about it here. Further reading on Supreme Court packing: Ian's original tweet is here. His Tucker clip is here. National Review responds to his proposal here. Dylan Matthews has a court packing Voxplainer here. Oren and Brianna's Current Affairs take on the whole idea of judges is here. Further reading on our historical what-ifs: Read Ho Chi Minh's Declaration of Independence here. History of Science is a really interesting discipline — read its wiki page here. Read more about free labor in Michael Sandel's Democracy's Discontent and Eric Foner's Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men. Read about one type of hierarchy organization here. Inside Job is here and Too Big to Fail is here. Joseph Singer's law review article on the Youngstown factory closing case is here. Support Current Affairs by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. For the written form of Current Affairs — and to subscribe to the beautiful print magazine — visit: CurrentAffairs.org. To join the conversation, leave us a voicemail at 504-867-8851.
Has the history of how our constitutional rights came to be protected on campus been forgotten? Professor Randall L. Kennedy believes it has. It’s a history even he wasn’t familiar with until recently. On this episode of So to Speak, Professor Kennedy explains how civil rights activists in the 1950s and 60s secured early victories for free speech, due process, and public assembly on high school and college campuses. Professor Kennedy teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations at Harvard Law School, and he is the author of “The Forgotten Origins of the Constitution on Campus.” Prior to arriving at Harvard, he was a law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall at the United States Supreme Court. BONUS: Check out and subscribe to the new FIRE-sponsored podcast, Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech. www.sotospeakpodcast.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/freespeechtalk Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/sotospeakpodcast Email us: sotospeak@thefire.org Call in a question: 215-315-0100
Ron and Heather respond to the violence in Charlottesville during a white nationalists rally and President Trump's statements. They speak with Randall Kennedy, law professor at Harvard University, and Tony Horwitz, author of "Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War".
Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School, has focused his research on race relations and civil rights law. In this episode, he discusses affirmative action, college protests, and his academic motivation.
Melissa and Shivani sit down with Professor Randall Kennedy from the Harvard Law School.
Harvard Law professor and bestselling author Randall Kennedy's newest book, "For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action and the Law," is a concise and deeply personal account of the policy and history of affirmative action. The book analyzes key arguments, pro and con, critiquing the impact of Supreme Court decisions, and pondering the policy's future in American society.
Harvard Law professor and bestselling author Randall Kennedy's newest book, "For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action and the Law," is a concise and deeply personal account of the policy and history of affirmative action. The book analyzes key arguments, pro and con, critiquing the impact of Supreme Court decisions, and pondering the policy's future in American society.
As a follow-up to Harvard Prof. Randall Kennedy's talk on "The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action," the McFarland Center sponsors a fishbowl-style discussion to consider how the ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas could change life at Holy Cross, and what competing notions of justice affect how we think about the case.
Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy highlights key decisions in race-based affirmative action in higher education over the past 34 years and previews the upcoming Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. Many observers believe the Court's ruling could effectively end the use of affirmative action in college admissions programs nationwide. Kennedy, who studies the intersection of racial conflict and legal institutions in American life, is completing a book on affirmative action.
Randall Kennedy, Harvard professor of law and author of The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency, shares some of his critiques of the president.
In his new book, Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal, Randall Kennedy grapples brilliantly and judiciously with "selling out," a subject of much anxiety and acrimony in black America.Randall Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University. He is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Association.Recorded On: Saturday, January 17, 2009
Randall Kennedy on Living Writers 2008-02-20 - WCBN Public Affairs Programming - WCBN Staff
Randall Kennedy on Living Writers 2008-02-20 - WCBN Public Affairs Programming - WCBN Staff
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
