43.003 - Civil Rights and Education in the Post-Truth Era

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

This panel will consider how civil rights have been contested and, in some cases, redefined in the post-truth environment, moving away from communitarian commitments to remedy the denial of civil rights. Panelists will discuss the implications of changing conceptions of civil rights, and of related policy shifts, in such areas as: Affirmative Action, K-12 school diversity, discipline, LGBTQ rights, immigration policy, and civil rights data collection. Panelists will also explore the diminished effectiveness of 14th Amendment legal arguments when seeking remedies for past discrimination as well as the more recent Civil Rights strategy of relying on the 1st Amendment rights of universities to support affirmative action policies. They will discuss the implications of this legal shift away from a conceptualization of policy remedies as a means to address historic injustice, to policies grounded in 1st Amendment rights of universities to maintain “diversity” to benefit all students, whether they are victims of such injustices or not. Thus, this panel will consider the implications of the changing federal and legal environment for opportunities for marginalized students in K-12 and higher education.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Elizabeth H. DeBray, University of Georgia

Participants

• Julie J. Park, University of Maryland - College Park

• Daniel Losen, University of California - Los Angeles

• Erica Frankenberg, The Pennsylvania State University

• Janelle T. Scott, University of California - Berkeley

• Elise Boddie, Rutgers University - Newark