“Law reforms in the US, ostensibly enacted to prohibit racism, have proven ineffective because they focus on bad intentions of individuals and fail to comprehend population-level conditions.” LawIndividualLevelsFocusFailingConditionsRacismIntentionPopulationReformProvenBad Intentions Author:Dean Spade
“I am arguing that it is a mistake for trans activists to focus our resources and attention on winning inclusion in legal equality frameworks, such as anti-discrimination laws and hate crimes laws, that will not provide relief from the life-shortening conditions trans populations are facing. Winning legal equality - getting the law to cast us as victims of discrimination who the state will protect - will not support our survival.” StatesLawHateWinningAttentionMistakeSupportFocusConditionsCrimeProtectSurvivalResourcesVictimCastsPopulationArguingDiscriminationReliefActivistInclusionFrameworkTransHate CrimeAnti Discrimination Author:Dean Spade
“Instead of focusing on what the law says about trans people, which is really what the law is saying about itself as a protector of trans people, we should be focused on what systems of law and administration do to trans people and our interventions should aim to dismantle harmful, violent systems such as criminal punishment and immigration enforcement.” PeopleShouldLawAimFocusedCriminalsPunishmentViolentImmigrationAdministrationEnforcementInterventionTransProtector Author:Dean Spade
“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 understand that in the context of the US, where our legal system is based in settler colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy, changing laws will never sufficiently change the conditions of harm and violence our movements seek to transform.” ShouldLawWhiteViolenceConditionsMovementCapitalismHarmColonialismWhite SupremacySupremacyLegal SystemSettlers 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
“Because my graduate academic training at law school was not one that included most of the intellectual traditions I find useful for understanding the conditions and problems that most concern me - anti-colonial theories, Foucault, critical disability studies, prison studies and the like are rarely seen in standard US Law School curricula, where students are still fighting on many campuses to get a single class on race or poverty offered - I developed most of my thinking about these topics through activist reading groups and collaborative writing projects with other activist scholars.” ThinkingWritingStillsProblemSchoolLawFightingReadingUnderstandingRaceClassPovertyStudyGroupsConditionsStudentsTheoryProjectsIntellectualTrainingStandardsConcernTraditionPrisonCriticalActivistDisabilityGraduatesAcademicScholarTopicsCampusLaw SchoolFighting On 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
