Vampires Anonymous and Critical Race Practice

Abstract:     
This article begins with a discussion of storytelling, setting the context for what follows: the author's own story of an affirmative-action-fueled journey through law school; law school teaching then law school publishing – to his ultimate resignation from what he calls the Vampire Law Professor existence (hence Vampires Anonymous). Most tenured law professors, he notes, are Storyhaters, preferring instead 100-page law journal articles with 400 footnotes. Indian people, on the other hand, love their story-tellers and their stories. Indian people also raise their children to think independently and act for others. The act-for-others theme makes its second appearance toward the end of the article, after Professor Williams colorfully describes how he was, temporarily, sucked into the blood-sucking, soul-draining, tenure-chasing, article-writing hell of his early professorial days. It was only after he joined Vampires Anonymous that Williams was able to “stop writing law review articles for a while and serve the needs of others in [his] community.” He accomplished this by involving both himself and his law students in Critical Race Practice. Williams concludes that as he and his students practice it, Critical Race Practice is about “learning to listen to other people’s stories and then finding ways to make these stories matter in the legal system.”

Keywords: Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Practice, Affirmative Action, Law Professors

Accepted Paper Series