#RaceClass

Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig joins the #RaceClass Podcast for a wide ranging conversation about familial ancestry, the Jason Arday tragedy, Tyler Austin Harper's appeal to white liberals, Jon's former torts professor turned President of Columbia university and what it means to lead under authoritarianism. We also dig into Julian's blog Cloaking Inequity and the ongoing demand for university...

Arnie and Jon discuss how the Trump regime is leveraging accreditation to make universities heel. The gambit traces straight to Project 2025 and rightwing activist Christopher Rufo, who explained to the New York Times the plan to use federal funding as a weapon to exert "existential terror" on every university that refuses to fall in line with their anti-democratic agenda. Shame on the ABA Legal...

Environmental law scholars Carmen G. Gonzalez and Rebecca Bratspies join the #RaceClass Podcast to discuss their new teaching guide: Teaching Environmental Law in Context. Their guide offers a corrective to the traditional environmental law course that disconnects students from the power dynamics, structural racism and local politics that animate today's most pressing environmental fights. We...

Why is Texas' GOP so scared to educate their own students? Jon & Arnie discuss the rising repression across Texas' public universities. The Texas state legislature, with help from handpicked rightwing administrators, is systematically undoing the decades of work that cultivated world class higher education in the state. At Texas A&M, administrators are scanning syllabi to cancel classes...

"Everyone committed to democracy, intellectual freedom, and the rule of law should be alarmed at what is happening--and be prepared to act." That call came from Professor Jafari Sinclaire Allen in a recent piece for The Nation that catalogued MAGA's ever-escalating assault on Black studies. Jon and Arnie use the piece as a jumping off point to discuss why home-grown authoritarians from Florida to...

Justice Clarence Thomas doesn't know what "diversity" means. UC Berkeley Law Professor David Oppenheimer does. David joined the #RaceClass Podcast to discuss his new book "The Diversity Principle." The book traces the diversity principle's long and circuitous (and often overlooked) history -- one that weaves through John and Harriet Mill, the legendary Pauli Murray, and fights for academic...

SMU Law Professor Carliss Chatman joined the #RaceClass podcast to discuss DEI "rollbacks" and the rise of "reverse racism" lawsuits from private actors and the Trump administration. We do a deep dive into Section 1981 and the myth of "free markets" -- with a specific nod to "white economic comfort," a term Professor Chatman coined to capture a powerful dyanmic that continues to drive who can...

Jon and Arnie discuss the Justice Department's decision to indict the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on fraud charges related to its use of informants to infiltrate extremist hate groups. The indictment turns the DOJ upside down; rather than prosecute the Klan, the DOJ is targeting organizations that help combat the Klan. It might sound absurd, but it is a predictable consequence of a federal...

In this special cross-posted episode, Jon joins Yvette Borja and the Radio Cachimbona podcast to discuss affirmative action. We spend much of the episode outlining the many many (did we say many?) ways that institutions may continue to intentionally build racially equitable, diverse and inclusion institutions -- all consistent with federal antidiscrimination law. Lots of the conversation draws on...

Chandra Taylor-Sawyer joined the #RaceClass Podcast to discuss the fight for environmental justice. Chandra is a Senior Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and leads its Environmental Justice Initiative. For nearly two decades, she has worked to confront the disproportionate burden of pollution borne by communities of color and low-wealth neighborhoods across the South. We...