(Photo via Facedbook)
As law schools put together their responses to what has clearly become an historic juncture in the countrys long, ignominious history with race, its worth remembering that a law school at a public university went out of its way to rename itself after a guy who thought the Voting Rights Act was a perpetuation of racial entitlement and cited debunked theories about black people needing slower-track school from the bench. At a moment when most institutions are taking a hard look at their role in the wider landscape of racial injustice, its safe to say that ASSLaw is not.
ASSLaw, of course, is the George Mason University School of Law, which renamed itself the Antonin Scalia School of Law at the behest of a wealthy donor under admittedly shady circumstances without taking a second to consider the truly fitting acronym theyd bestowed upon themselves. They attempted to rebrand as the Antonin Scalia Law School, but by then wed all embraced the ASSLaw moniker.
And it seems that the school is content to follow their namesakes lead when it comes to race and diversity.
The school is a mere 2 percent black, an eye-popping number for a public school in Virginia. On a recent conference call discussing the issue, the Dean of Admissions cited the old canard of high academic standards as the reason why the school does not have more black students. Its a justification that would be news to UVA (5.7 percent), Georgetown (9.2 percent), and George Washington (7.8 percent), all demonstrably superior academic institutions that seem to have no problem finding black law students.
In fairness, part of the schools problem is the name itself. When the school made the shift to align itself ideologically with a jurist who spent his tenure pushing racist, sexist, and homophobic tropes onto the national stage we all knew it would create a self-selection diversity problem as minority students inched away from the barely top 50 program when so many alternatives exist. George Masons president, Angel Cabrera, defended the name change at the time with words that were either tragically ironic or nakedly cynical, We must ensure that George Mason University remains an example of diversity of thought, a place where multiple perspectives can be dissected, confronted, and debated for the benefit and progress of society at large. What he got was a school systematically erasing actual diversity. But more conservative professors whose scholarship might not land them work elsewhere get to call the school home and thats a kind of diversity, if a racist one.
But even if the name greatly diminished the pool of black applicants, the attempt to pin the lack of diversity on high academic standards hits at the core of the schools philosophical problem. Its not just that the school doesnt seem to care about diversity, its that they are quick to blame their own institutional shortcomings on black people themselves. As they see it, ASSLaw hasnt failed to recruit students the students failed to be good enough for ASSLaw. Its an exercise in victim blaming that guarantees the school will remain mired at the bottom of diversity rankings until it undergoes a fundamental mindset shift.
For the minority students still braving the ASSLaw ranks, the school isnt performing much better. With Eugene Volokh tossing around racial slurs and throwing tantrums when hes called out for it, you can imagine what a faculty built around Volokh Conspiracy bloggers can get up to. In response to complaints about both professors and students saying unconscionable stuff in class, the school formed a Classroom Dialogue Committee. That certainly sounds like a step in the right direction, but were hearing that many of the professors on the committee have complaints against them for inappropriate comments. Its like letting the inmates run the Ayn Rand School for Objectivist Studies.
And since ASSLaw is just Fosters Home For Right-Wing Troll Friends, the school that cant find any way to admit more black people did manage to bring in Ginni Thomass infamous aide Crystal Clanton who we last caught up with when she was texting co-workers that:
I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like fuck them all ... I hate blacks. End of story.
Despite this being a well-known incident that led to even Turning Point USA distancing themselves from her, ASSLaw admitted Clanton in another display of the schools deep commitment to promoting an inclusive atmosphere for professional education.
But Clanton has learned to like Clarence Thomas so I guess racism is solved.
At the end of the day, ASSLaw is now the conservative ideology factory that we thought it would be. But George Mason isnt a private school. A public school that cant muster a black student body of more than 2 percent in a state thats roughly 19 percent black is objectively failing at its mission to serve the people of Virginia.
There are definitely bigger issues in Virginia right now than law school administration, but thats no excuse for continued inaction. Someone in state government needs to step in and be the adult in the room because the stunted adolescence of libertarianism certainly isnt producing any leadership from within the school. This is the largest public research university in the state! And yet the law school seems more focused on providing a mill for conservative academics to publish hot takes than building the profession.
Fix it.
Joe Patriceis a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free toemail any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him onTwitterif youre interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
Read more from the original source:
- Voices for Reason Blog | The Ayn Rand Institute - December 9th, 2016 [December 9th, 2016]
- Media, morality and the neighbors cow: When did Ayn Rand become the ... - December 14th, 2016 [December 14th, 2016]
- How Ayn Rands theories destroyed Never Trump conservatism - December 14th, 2016 [December 14th, 2016]
- Ayn Rand's Progressive Readers are Misguided | National Review - December 14th, 2016 [December 14th, 2016]
- The Daily 202: Ayn Rand-acolyte Donald Trump stacks his cabinet with ... - December 14th, 2016 [December 14th, 2016]
- The scary ghost of Ayn Rand looms over the Trump cabinet - December 18th, 2016 [December 18th, 2016]
- Fountainhead of bad ideas: Ayn Rands fanboys take the reins ... - December 18th, 2016 [December 18th, 2016]
- Ayn Rand Institute eStore : Ayn Rand - January 11th, 2017 [January 11th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand Made US a Selfish, Greedy Nation - January 20th, 2017 [January 20th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand and the Invincible Cult of Selfishness on the ... - January 24th, 2017 [January 24th, 2017]
- The Ayn Rand scene Sajid Javid reads every year - Spectator.co.uk - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- The Ayn Rand in Donald Trump: The Virtue of America First | The ... - American Spectator - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Would Ayn Rand Have Cast President Trump As A Villain? | Zero ... - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Jerome Tuccille, Author of It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand and More, RIP - Reason (blog) - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand Contra Nietzsche - The Objective Standard - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Judging Milo Yiannopoulos, ft. Ayn Rand (Episode #24 of MY PODCAST) - ChicagoNow (blog) - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- How Much Ayn Rand Is There in Trump's 'America First' Foreign ... - American Spectator - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Who Is Ayn Rand? - The Objective Standard - The Objective Standard - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Cheer Up, Justin Amash! There's No Need to Cry Over One Missed Vote. - Slate Magazine (blog) - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- No sympathy: How Ayn Rand's elitism lives on in the Trump ... - Salon - Salon - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- How Ayn Rand's 'elitism' lives on in the Donald Trump ... - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Mick Mulvaney's snake oil: A blend of bad science, bad math and really bad politics - Salon - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Make the magic money tree work for everyone, not just the rich - The Guardian - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Neo-Tech Views On Ayn Rand and Objectivism | Good Herald - Good Herald - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Elate's Revival of Ayn Rand's NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH Opens 6/3 - Broadway World - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Is Germany Blowing It? - The Awl - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Letter: Deregulation is not always best - Aiken Standard - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- How the Dark Web's Dread Pirate Roberts Went Down - New York Times - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- Trump's Credibility Problem - National Review - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- Trump & Ryan's (Tryan's) Co-Conspiracy in Moral Bankruptcy - The Good Men Project (blog) - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- Shall we all hang separately? - Nevada Appeal - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- PBS Is Airing Right-Wing-Sponsored School Privatization Propaganda - The National Memo (blog) - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- South Fayette educator and coach has the music in him - Observer-Reporter - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Tech Talk: Israel's Fortune 500 companies - The Jerusalem Post - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- The Fountainhead: American Eclectic - Patheos (blog) - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- NY Times, After 'Corrections,' Still Has Palin-Giffords 'Targeting' Myth in Scalise Shooting Editorial - NewsBusters (press release) (blog) - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Both parties responsible for economic failings - Alpena News - June 18th, 2017 [June 18th, 2017]
- Wayne LaPierre, Tomi Lahren, and a Rally Cry From Young Conservative Women - D Magazine - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Goodbye Reason, Hello Violence - Townhall - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Selfie by Will Storr review are the young really so self-obsessed? - The Guardian - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- If You Saw Uber's CEO Testify Before the DC Council, His Downfall May Come as No Surprise - HuffPost - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Working toward graduation: 50 SPS students participate in credit recovery program - Stillwater News Press - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Ayn Rand | American author | Britannica.com - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Travis Kalanick may have resigned as Uber's CEO but he isn't going away - Washington Post - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- 'Fargo' Season 3 finale recap: A mostly satisfying, but ambiguous ending - Baltimore Sun - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- London Theater Review: Topical Drama 'Terror' - Variety - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Paul Ryan conflicted by Jesus Christ and Ayn Rand -- Norman Jensen - Madison.com - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- BOB BARR: Goodbye reason, Hello violence - MDJOnline.com - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- Lowell Thomas, the Original 'Voice of America' - The Weekly Standard - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- This Classic Colonial Revival in Westchester Has Impressive Literary Ties - Mansion Global - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- The Continuing Scourge of Tenant Harassment: If You Don't Like It, Move. - The Nonprofit Quarterly (registration) - June 27th, 2017 [June 27th, 2017]
- The least of these - Ashland Daily Press - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Why can't self-satisfied liberals admit that conservatives care about people, too? - The Week Magazine - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Letter: Things aren't going so well under President Trump - Detroit Lakes Online - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- J. Talbot Manvel: Declaration of Independence joined morality and law - CapitalGazette.com - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- I watched the sun set on my Sunset Boulevard romance - Los Angeles Times - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- Republican states raising taxes, not lowering them | The Seattle Times - The Seattle Times - July 3rd, 2017 [July 3rd, 2017]
- Takers and Fakers - New York Times (blog) - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]
- BOB BARR: Violent tribalism on display in Charlottesville - MDJOnline.com - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- Is There Really an 'Insidious Libertarian-To-Alt-Right Pipeline'? - Reason (blog) - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- 30 important life lessons Dirty Dancing taught us - EW.com - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand - Salon.com - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- Anthem Essay Contest Ayn Rand Education - August 24th, 2017 [August 24th, 2017]
- What's Wrong With America? - Falls Church News Press - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Why Stephen K. Bannon was such a failure - The Washington Post - Washington Post - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Movie Review: In Pattinson, 'Twilight' sidles up to Ratso Rizzo - The Providence Journal - August 25th, 2017 [August 25th, 2017]
- Why Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary read Ayn Rand - January 29th, 2018 [January 29th, 2018]
- How Hillary Clinton Is Like Ayn Rand | The Weekly Standard - March 16th, 2018 [March 16th, 2018]
- Ayn Rand's Ideas - An Overview | AynRand.org - June 23rd, 2018 [June 23rd, 2018]
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Paperback | Barnes & Noble - July 16th, 2018 [July 16th, 2018]
- In Defense of Ayn Rand, Monster Under the Progressive Bed - July 21st, 2018 [July 21st, 2018]
- Ayn Rand Institute eStore - September 6th, 2018 [September 6th, 2018]
- Ayn Rand, Objectivism - The Atlas Society - November 23rd, 2018 [November 23rd, 2018]
- Here's how Ayn Rand helped turn the US into a selfish and ... - November 27th, 2018 [November 27th, 2018]
- Is There a Proof of Ayn Rand's Ethics? - November 27th, 2018 [November 27th, 2018]
- Ayn Rand raged against government benefits but grabbed ... - November 29th, 2018 [November 29th, 2018]
- President Obama Jabs At Ayn Rand, Knocks Himself Out - December 9th, 2018 [December 9th, 2018]
- Column: This is what happens when you take Ayn Rand seriously ... - February 16th, 2019 [February 16th, 2019]
- Ayn Rand - The New York Times - March 25th, 2019 [March 25th, 2019]
- Atlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition) by Ayn Rand, Paperback ... - March 25th, 2019 [March 25th, 2019]