2.1 Richardson Oakes
Anne Richardson Oakes. (2012). Schools and Race in the Language of the Law: Precision or Meaningless Jargon? International Journal of Law, Language & Discourse 2(1), 156-179.
Abstract: The decision of the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education inaugurated the desegregation of the nation’s public schools, but the rationale was not clear and the Court’s interpretation of what the decision required has changed over time. Most recently the Court has refused to engage with the issue of so-called “resegregation,” so that the divergence between legal language and that of lived experience on matters of schools and race has become more pronounced. This paper explores that divergence in the context of the Court’s affirmative action jurisprudence and considers what might be the consequences when the language of the law and the language of the people whom it serves fail to coincide.
Keywords: equal protection, anti-subordination, colorblind constitution, post-racialism
Category: Volume 2
