Black Racial Facades: Comparing the Social Origins and Racial Perspectives of Black Law Students

• In Event: 33.079 - Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: 33.079-15 - Race, Ethnicity, and Emerging Identities

Abstract

Our study examines America’s rigid conceptions of race in law school settings. We use the experiences and perspectives of “Black” law students as an instructive case study to critique the “Black/African American” racial category. Using survey data from 756 incoming Black students in 68 law schools, we examine how growing diversity within the “Black/African American” racial category challenges the ways in which public policy uses and views the significance of race. We illustrate this point by exploring the social origins of Black immigrant and Black native students and interrogating whether different life experiences can contribute to dissimilar conceptions of race. Our findings begin to delineate the limitations of using monolithic approaches to study “Black/African American” students in higher education.

Authors

• Tanya Chirapuntu, University of California - Los Angeles

• Nina Daoud, University of Maryland - College Park

• Walter R. Allen, University of California - Los Angeles