Poster #12 - Deniable Plausibility: How Twombly and Iqbal Protect the Artful Racism of Education Reform

• In Event: 31.094 - MTCC Poster Session Six
  In Poster Session: 31.094-4 - Division L Section 2 Poster Session

Abstract

Even though the racist impacts of market-based education reforms are well known, reform policies are protected by a legal structure that protects all but the most explicit instances of racism. Such was the case in Little Rock in 2016, when a U.S. District Court dismissed charges of race discrimination arising from the majority white State Board’s dissolution of the majority Black LRSD board. Through a critical race analysis of Doe v. Arkansas Department of Education, I suggest that, rather than only looking at disparate impact, historical contexts, and departures from administrative norms, courts should also turn back to the language they have previously dismissed as neutral or colorblind, to see how discriminatory intent can be implicit, but plausible nonetheless.

Author

• Davis Clement, University of Virginia