Indignities real and perceived: Race in America's elite law school

This research sets out to examine the ways in which racial dynamics in elite United States law schools impact the learning and experiences of law students. Research indicates that the process of socialization in law school, or learning to "think like a lawyer," is a powerful socializing force. In addition, some research suggests that force impacts students differently based upon their race, class, and gender. While a great deal of empirical research has examined the ways in which gender and class may impact the law school experience, none has focused specifically on the racial organization and culture of law school education. My research sets out to fill this gap through ethnographic investigation of the racial dynamics at two highly selective and highly ranked American law schools with significantly different racial demographics. Drawing on three substantive areas of sociological literature, critical race theory, the sociology of law, and the sociology of education, I examine both the structural aspects of law school education and the every day experiences of law students. I argue that law schools are a white space in which norms of liberal individualism and color-blind racism dominate the assumptions of legal education and the discourse within the law school. Within this framework students of color are faced with everyday indignities which challenge their intellectual ability and their right to be in the law school. As a result students of color are forced to perform invisible emotional labor, in addition to the general demands of legal education. This labor, which is not required of their white counter-parts, goes unrecognized and un-rewarded in the law school or in the legal profession writ-large. These findings have important implications for legal education, but they also raise questions about the assumptions of the affirmative action discourse, as well as the dominant framework of mainstream sociological research on race.