Race in Ordinary Course: Utilizing the Racial Background in Antitrust and Corporate Law Courses

Abstract

This article is about the discourses in law school classes in which non-white students are in classes with white students. While I stake a position distinct from critical race theorists, I do not analyze critical race theory or the large body of scholarship pertaining thereto in this article. I limit my discussion to my use of race in teaching traditional law school subjects, specifically antitrust and corporate law. I present this article in two parts.

In Part I, I describe the challenges of using critical race theory to introduce discussions of race in traditional law school subjects. Race is interjected as an outsider. In Part II, I present my race in ordinary course approach. I do not suggest that my approach is superior to Critical Race Theory; I offer it only as another avenue of discussing race. In my approach, the subject matter drives the analysis and race is visibly interwoven into conventional legal analysis.

Keywords: critical race theorists, legal analysis, teaching law school subjects