In
Do We Care Enough About Racial Inequality?
Reflections on The River Runs Dry, Professor Guy-Uriel Charles
focuses on the underlying assumption of West-Faulcon’s argument, namely,
that the failure to take seriously the problems of inequality that afflict
communities of color—e.g., racial inequality in education—is a consequence
of the absence of (or the failure to recognize) legal tools sufficient
to the task. Charles asserts that the problem is not a lack of
legal tools but the failure of the legal system—as demonstrated in
the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Parents Involved in Community
Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Ricci v. DeStefano—to
recognize the dignity of people of color in constitutional analysis.
Accordingly, Charles argues that legal academics need to make not just
legal arguments but a renewed case why we ought to care about racial
inequality.
Volume 158 Issue 1 2010 Response