“Critical Race Theory offers a critique of how law and certain law reform strategies misunderstand the actual operation of life-shortening state violence, and how that has produced a set of reforms that fail to actually transform material conditions of white supremacy. These critiques redirect our attention to the conditions we aim to transform.” StatesLawCertainWhiteRaceAttentionViolenceFailingConditionsMaterialsTheoryOffersAimStrategyCriticalReformOperationsWhite SupremacyCritiqueSupremacy Author:Dean Spade
“We should interact with legal reform tactically, knowing that it will not meet our ultimate goals but asking whether there are ways that engaging with particular reforms might benefit our work and help reduce certain harms or dangers.” WayShouldHelpingMightCertainGoalKnowingDangerParticularBenefitsUltimateAskingHarmReformEngagingUltimate Goal Author:Dean Spade
“When we approach legal reform work, we can ask questions like: Will this provide actual relief to people facing violence or harm or will it primarily be a symbolic change? Will this divide our constituency by offering relief only to people with certain privileged statuses (such as people with lawful immigration status, people with jobs, married people, etc.)?” PeopleJobsCertainAsksViolenceApproachMarriedHarmImmigrationReformReliefEtcDividesOfferingPrivilegedSymbolic Author:Dean Spade
“I went to law school which is a 3-year program in the US that is focused primarily on memorizing certain doctrines and taking exams that test whether you can apply those doctrines to help prepare for the bar exam. If you are lucky, you get a few classes where you are encouraged to think more critically and read critical texts rather than just casebooks, and perhaps write a paper that is not a legal memo or brief.” IfsThinkingWritingYearsHelpingSchoolLawCertainClassLuckyPaperProgramTestsCriticalFocusedBarsDoctrineWhere You AreExamLaw SchoolLucky YouMemorizingMemosBar Exam Author:Dean Spade
“I often notice how students can gain the capacity to use certain critical methodologies through engaging with very different texts - how a graphic novel about gentrification and an anthology about Hurricane Katrina and a journalistic account of war profiteering might all lead to very similar classroom conversations and critical engagement. I'm particularly interested in this when teaching law students who often resist reading interdisciplinary materials or materials they interpret as too theoretical.” DifferentWarUseMightLawCertainReadingNovelTeachingStudentsMaterialsConversationGainsCapacityAccountsCriticalEngagementClassroomEngagingTheoreticalGraphicHurricanesAnthologyMethodologyKatrinaGraphic NovelsJournalisticHurricane KatrinaGentrificationLaw StudentsInterdisciplinary Author:Dean Spade
“I am often talking about the ideas collected in Normal Life in contexts that are not academic, or that are full of people who are not primarily engaging as theorists or theory-readers. Being able to make ideas visual, especially critical ideas about movements that can be difficult to hear because of attachments we have to certain national narratives, or because of ways that we see ourselves, is especially useful.” PeopleWayIdeasAbleCertainDifficultTalkingMovementTheoryReaderNormalCriticalNarrativeVisualsAttachmentAcademicEngagingNormal LifeTheorists Author:Dean Spade
“Power is not a matter of one dominant individual or institutions, but instead manifests in interconnected, contradictory sites where regimes of knowledge and practice circulate and take hold. This way of understanding the dispersion of power helps us realize that power is not simply about certain individuals being targeted for death or exclusion by a ruler, but instead about the creation of norms that distribute vulnerability and security.” WayMatterHelpingCertainIndividualUnderstandingRealizingPracticeSecurityCreationInstitutionsVulnerabilityRegimesRulersSiteDominantNormContradictoryExclusionInterconnectedDispersion Author:Dean Spade
