Banner
Anti-racism & Allyship
Main Content
Heading
Anti-racism is the policy or practice of opposing racism and promoting racial tolerance. Allyship is the lifelong track of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people.
As part of Duke Law's overall diversity and inclusion initiatives, faculty, students, and staff are committed to providing a truly welcome space for everyone to learn, work, and grow. An essential part of this requires educating ourselves to be able to identify racism when it shows up and how best to respond to it. The following resources – articles, books, audio roundtables, video presentations, TV shows, films, and faculty commentary – have been curated by the Duke Law Anti-Racism Project and Ebony Bryant, director of diversity initiatives at Duke Law, as tools to help the Law School community to be better advocates for anti-racism and allyship. As the work continues at Duke Law, this page will be updated to reflect that work.
Policing in America: How Did We Get Here, Where Do We Go?
On July 9, 2020, Dean Kerry Abrams hosted a conversation with Duke Law faculty members on the current state of policing throughout the United States, with an emphasis on how policies and biases impact communities of color. The panel consisted of Professors Brandon L. Garrett, Lisa Kern Griffin, H. Timothy Lovelace, Jr., Darrell A. H. Miller, and was moderated by Jesse McCoy, supervising attorney for the Duke Civil Justice Clinic.
link
Introduction to Anti-Racism & Allyship
The Duke Law Anti-Racism Project, a student-led group, made this presentation to the Duke Law community on June 7, 2020. It offers a framework for anti-racism work intended to be accessible, and give the Duke Law community the language to move forward implementing long overdue changes.
link
- Duke University: Resources for Understanding and Confronting Racism and Its Impact
- Duke Law Library’s Race, Oppression, and Social Change Resource Guide
- A ‘What to Say When’ guide
- A guide to what defunding the police means
- A list of petitions to consider supporting
- Ways you can help (Black Lives Matter)
- Movement for Black Lives Reparations Now Toolkit
- Law Firm Antiracism Alliance Will Foster Advocacy to Eliminate Structural Racism (Shriver Center on Poverty Law, 7/01/20)
- Law Schools’ complicity on race must be challenged (TheAppeal.org, 6/24/20)
- Opinion: Black lawyers matter: What the Texas legal community can do to eradicate racism (Houston Chronicle, 6/19/20)
- Academia Isn’t a Safe Haven for Conversations About Race and Racism (HBR.org, 6/25/20)
- Over 125 Firms Have Joined the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance (Law.com, 6/24/20)
- The Crippling Impact of Anti-Black Racism, and How Allies Can Act Against It (Law.com, 6/18/20)
- Insight: Walking the Walk—How Law Firms Can Fight Racial Injustice (Bloomberg Law, 6/12/20)
- Racism, Police Brutality and What Attorneys Can Do: UM Law Hosts Candid Discussion (Law.com, 6/02/20)
- First, Listen. Then, Learn: Anti-Racism Resources For White People (Forbes, 6/02/20)
- “Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?” (Medium, 6/01/20)
- Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Los Angeles Times, 5/30/20)
- Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People. (The New York Times, 5/29/20)
- The Death of George Floyd, In Context (The New Yorker, 5/28/20)
- The Case for Reparations | Audio (The Atlantic, 06/14)
- White Lawyering: Rethinking Race, Lawyer Identity, and Rule of Law (Fordham Law Review, 2005)
- Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
- Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (Mahzarin R. Banaji)
- Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools (Glenn Singleton)
- How to Be an Antiracist: What Lawyers + Law Students Need to Know (Ibram X. Kendi)
- Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson)
- Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (Jacoba Atlas)
- So You Want To Talk About Race (Ijeoma Oluo)
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Ibram X. Kendi)
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Michelle Alexander)
- White By Law (Ian Haney López)
- White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (Robin DiAngelo)
- White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Tim Wise)
- White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (Carol Anderson)
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (Beverly Daniel Tatum)
- You Don't Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism (Tsedale M. Melaku)
- 13th (Ava DuVernay)
- Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler)
- I’m Not Racist Am I? (Andre Lee)
- I AM Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck)
- If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
- Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (Jacoba Atlas)
- Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Stanley Nelson and Marco Williams, PBS)
- The Color of Fear (Lee Mun Wah)
- When They See Us (Ava DuVernay)
- The difference between being “not racist” and antiracist; Ibram X. Kendi, Cloe Shasha, Whitney Pennington Rodgers (51:06)
- How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time; Baratunde Thurston (16:50)
- What it takes to be racially literate; Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo (12:22)
- What prosecutors and incarcerated people can learn from each other; Jarrell Daniels (12:04)
- Duke University: Resources for Understanding and Confronting Racism and Its Impact
- Duke Law Library’s Race, Oppression, and Social Change Resource Guide
- A ‘What to Say When’ guide
- A guide to what defunding the police means
- A list of petitions to consider supporting
- Ways you can help (Black Lives Matter)
- Movement for Black Lives Reparations Now Toolkit
- Law Firm Antiracism Alliance Will Foster Advocacy to Eliminate Structural Racism (Shriver Center on Poverty Law, 7/01/20)
- Law Schools’ complicity on race must be challenged (TheAppeal.org, 6/24/20)
- Opinion: Black lawyers matter: What the Texas legal community can do to eradicate racism (Houston Chronicle, 6/19/20)
- Academia Isn’t a Safe Haven for Conversations About Race and Racism (HBR.org, 6/25/20)
- Over 125 Firms Have Joined the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance (Law.com, 6/24/20)
- The Crippling Impact of Anti-Black Racism, and How Allies Can Act Against It (Law.com, 6/18/20)
- Insight: Walking the Walk—How Law Firms Can Fight Racial Injustice (Bloomberg Law, 6/12/20)
- Racism, Police Brutality and What Attorneys Can Do: UM Law Hosts Candid Discussion (Law.com, 6/02/20)
- First, Listen. Then, Learn: Anti-Racism Resources For White People (Forbes, 6/02/20)
- “Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?” (Medium, 6/01/20)
- Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Los Angeles Times, 5/30/20)
- Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People. (The New York Times, 5/29/20)
- The Death of George Floyd, In Context (The New Yorker, 5/28/20)
- The Case for Reparations | Audio (The Atlantic, 06/14)
- White Lawyering: Rethinking Race, Lawyer Identity, and Rule of Law (Fordham Law Review, 2005)
- Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
- Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (Mahzarin R. Banaji)
- Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools (Glenn Singleton)
- How to Be an Antiracist: What Lawyers + Law Students Need to Know (Ibram X. Kendi)
- Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson)
- Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (Jacoba Atlas)
- So You Want To Talk About Race (Ijeoma Oluo)
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Ibram X. Kendi)
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Michelle Alexander)
- White By Law (Ian Haney López)
- White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (Robin DiAngelo)
- White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Tim Wise)
- White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (Carol Anderson)
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (Beverly Daniel Tatum)
- You Don't Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism (Tsedale M. Melaku)
- 13th (Ava DuVernay)
- Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler)
- I’m Not Racist Am I? (Andre Lee)
- I AM Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck)
- If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
- Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (Jacoba Atlas)
- Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Stanley Nelson and Marco Williams, PBS)
- The Color of Fear (Lee Mun Wah)
- When They See Us (Ava DuVernay)
- The difference between being “not racist” and antiracist; Ibram X. Kendi, Cloe Shasha, Whitney Pennington Rodgers (51:06)
- How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time; Baratunde Thurston (16:50)
- What it takes to be racially literate; Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo (12:22)
- What prosecutors and incarcerated people can learn from each other; Jarrell Daniels (12:04)
Heading
Ways to Take Action
Content
- ACLU
- Audre Lorde Project
- Black Lives Matter
- Black Visions Collective
- Campaign Zero
- Emancipate NC
- Equal Justice Initiative
- GoFundMe for Tony McDade
- Justice for Breonna Taylor (change.org)
- Louisville Community Bail Fund
- Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights
- NAACP
- National Bail Out
- North Carolina Bail Fund
- Reclaim the Block
- Showing Up for Racial Justice
Heading
In The News: Faculty, Staff, and Alumni
Content
- For combating racial disparities, commitment makes the difference (Brittany Grady ‘22, 7/13/20)
- History Tells Us Black Americans Need Better Legal Protection (Jeff Powell, 7/19/20)
- Elevating and Engaging with Black Lives on Law School Campuses (Guy-Uriel Charles, 6/30/20)
- Q&A: James Coleman on the issues with and potential future of the criminal justice system (James Coleman, 6/23/20)
- What Do We Teach Our Students About Law and Justice? (Trina Jones & co-author, 6/15/20)
- Request for the Convening of a Special Session on the Escalating Situation of Police Violence and Repression of Protests in the United States (International Human Rights Clinic & others, 6/08/20)
- Here & Now: How Protests Can Lead To Legislative Change (Guy-Uriel Charles, 6/05/20)
- Race, Injustice, and DNA Exonerations (Brandon Garrett, 6/05/20)
- Black North Carolina justice system leaders speak in support of protesters’ calls for change (Chief Justice Cheri Beasley MJS '18, Durham DA Satana Deberry '94, 6/03/20)
- Standing for Victims of Injustice (Brandon Garrett, 6/03/20)
- Duke U Media Briefing: George Floyd, Police Conduct and Protests Across America (James Coleman, Ben Grunwald, 6/02/20)
Title
A Message from Dean Kerry Abrams
Content
On June 10, 2020, Dean Abrams sent a message to alumni, detailing some of the first steps that students, faculty, and staff are taking to stand up against racial injustice and ensure Duke Law is "a place where all races, genders, and backgrounds can thrive."
Button
Title
Diversity & Inclusion
Content
For more information about Duke Law's diversity and inclusion initiatives involving students, faculty, and alumni, please contact Director of Diversity Initiatives Ebony Bryant.
Button
Title
Duke Law Anti-Racism Project
Content
A newly established student organization at Duke Law under the Center for Law, Race, and Politics.
Button