(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
The past several days have brought us a number of statements from law firms and law schools responding to the national outcry proximately sparked by the killing of George Floyd, though so many names have come before Floyd. Some ring hollow and others were just plain botched.
For a guide to preparing a powerful and supportive statement, check out the one released by the Rutgers Law faculty last night.
In a recent Above the Law article about law firm statements specifically, we outlined some key components of a positive statement, “like a firm’s unwillingness to come out and say Black Lives Matter” or “mention the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Armaud Arbery, or any other victim of racial violence.” The Rutgers faculty statement takes these points, that so many firms and law schools struggled to reach, as the starting point before taking an honest look at the role of the legal profession in enabling white supremacy.
The faculty of Rutgers Law School joins with other communities around the world, including our own student community, to express our outrage and grief over the public execution of George Floyd. We also join in solidarity with those in the United States and elsewhere who stand in protest against a widespread pattern of state-sanctioned violence directed against Black people and other oppressed communities.
Black lives matter.
The recent killings of Layleen Polanco, Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Philando Castile, Tanisha Anderson, Atatiana Jefferson, Charleena Lyles, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Maurice Gordon, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Michael Brown Jr., Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Tony McDade, and many others have roots in a history of white supremacy. America’s criminal justice system traces back to slave patrols, Reconstruction, the development of Jim and Jane Crow, and the convict leasing system, whereby Black people (including children, adults, and the elderly) were arrested for loitering and then leased out to be worked to death. That history has not yet been overcome.
As a public school located in two poor communities, both Rutgers Law campuses have long histories of taking concrete action to promote racial justice from curricular reforms to building robust clinical programs. But where most statements might rest on the institution’s laurels, the Rutgers statement reflects on its own shortcomings:
We both acknowledge the historical commitment of our faculty, staff, and students to this racial justice work and deplore the unequal burden Black and Brown members of our Law School community currently bear in carrying it out. We also recognize and acknowledge that many non- Black faculty have benefited and continue to benefit from racialized structures that disadvantage Black people and other communities of color, and that even when striving to be anti-racist we have at times been complacent, and to that extent complicit, in the survival of systems of racial injustice.
And rather than leave that general statement hanging, the statement outlines a non-exhaustive list of specific actions the faculty commits to undertaking from internal steps reviewing curriculum and clinical offerings to a commitment to scrutinize the anti-discriminatory efforts of prospective employers and pledging to engage more community and marginalized group organizations.
Fundamentally, everyone’s contribution to the struggle should be tailored to what they best bring to the fight. For academics working at a public institution, that’s research and scholarship, and the statement zeroes in on this, committing to be a safe and supportive place for independent academic inquiry for specific legal policy changes, highlighting police accountability and transparency, “broken windows” procedures, for-profit prisons, and family separation as just a few of the legal matters where they can help.
It’s such a contrast to the Michigan Law statement, where a public institution suggested that it had little business commenting on matters outside the Quad — the Rutgers faculty proclaims without reservation that fighting racism is absolutely a professional concern of the law at all times and in all places.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.