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Role Models and the Politics of Recognition

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Role Models and the Politics of Recognition ROLE MODELS AND THE POLITICS OF RECOGNITION ADENO ADDISt A crucialelement ofpolitics... is the struggleto define social reality and to interpretpeople's inchoate aspirationsand needs. Particularwords and expressions often become focal in such struggles,functioning as keywords, sites at which the meaning of social existence is negotiated and contested. Keywords typically carry unspoken assumptions and connotationsthat can powerfully influence the discourses they permeate-inpart by constituting a body of doxa, or taken-for-granted commonsense belief that escapes criticalscrutiny. -Fraser and Gordon' INTRODUCTION In the United States the concept of the "role model" has emerged with increasing frequency in both the social and legal domains. Indeed, talk about role models has become an important aspect of social, political, and legal discourse. People argue about whether professional women have enough role models,2 whether t Associate Professor, Tulane University School of Law. I am grateful to Paul Carrington, Anthony Cook, Richard Delgado,John Stick, Michael Vitiello, and Keith Werhan for their comments on an earlier draft. I also wish to thank Scott Coffee, Curtis ConnorsJohn Drazkowski, and Creighton Miller for their research assistance. ' Nancy Fraser & Linda Gordon, A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracinga Keyword of the U.S. Welfare State, 19 SIGNS 309, 310 (1994) (citations omitted). 2 See generally Berenice Fisher, Wandering in the Wilderness: The Searchfor Women Role Models, 13 SIGNS 211 (1988). It is interesting to note here that the debate about the need for such role models not only occurs among individuals with different outlooks on life and social relations, but also within individuals themselves. For example, Fisher reports that when she heard for the first time, in the 1970s, "the claim that.., women.., needed female role models to make [their] way through the world," she was very angry. Id. at 211. Angry, (1) because that claim appeared to deemphasize the idea of the independent woman for which she had struggled, (2) because the emphasis on role models "sets women up for cooptation when the powers-that-be offer us role models instead ofjustice," and (3) because of the "subtle and not-so-subtle ways [in which] such advocacy perpetuates the logic of domination, by encouraging us to look up to 'special women' rather than to look around us for the women with whom we might act." Id. at 212. But writing in 1988 Fischer had a less hostile view toward the notion of role models. By then she "understood more fully the possibilities of role models for the lives of contemporary women." Id. at 214; see also Nancy A. Roeske & Karen Lake, Role Modelsfor Women Medical Students, 52J. MED. EDUC. 459,459 (1977) ("Increasing numbers of women are entering medical school. However, there are still relatively (1377) 1378 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 144: 1377 the underrepresentation of minorities' in various occupations and positions of social and political influence (and the educational crisis in the inner cities) can be explained in terms of the lack of role models,4 whether one can be a role model to those who belong to a different racial group or gender,5 whether membership in a few women physicians. Thus, many women medical students have not had an opportunity to know a woman physician prior to entering medical school. This situation has led to questions regarding the need for women physicians to serve as role models for women medical students."). ' The "minority" that is the primary focus of this Article is African Americans, although a great deal of the analysis and observation could be applied to other minority groups as well. I might also mention here that in this Article, I shall use the terms "black" and "African American" interchangeably. Although some parts of this Article deal with the notion of role model as it applies to women, and although a great deal of analysis could be applied to women, I must point out, lest I be taken to promise more than I can deliver, that the Article's focus is the rhetoric of role model as it applies to African Americans. 4 See Verbatim, WASH. POST, Jan. 20, 1992, at A23 ("[T]he current statistics for minority higher education are discouraging.... [T]he lack of African-American role models has been cited in study after study as one of the prime reasons our youngsters do not pursue college educations and certain career options like science and engineering." (quoting Rep. Conyers)). Indeed, some cities and school districts have established, or are in the process of establishing, special schools exclusively for black male students; their idea is to provide black male role models for these students to compensate for a perceived lack of appropriate male role models in their home lives. See Michael J. Weber, Note, Immersed in an Educational Crisis: Alternative Programsfor African-American Males, 45 STAN. L. REV. 1099, 1099-1101 (1993) ("In response [to the educational crisis among African American males] several public school districts have proposed or implement- ed African-American all-male schools (or classes) in a controversial attempt to improve the academic performance and self-esteem of African-American boys.... Although these programs are not identical, they share certain characteristics ... [one of which is the] attempt to provide African-American male role models or mentors with whom the students can identify." (emphasis added) (citations omitted)); see also Note, Inner-CitySingle-Sex Schools: EducationalReform or Invidious Discrimination,105 HARV. L. REV. 1741, 1744 (1992) (discussing the constitutionality of such programs and explaining that "[many educators ... maintain that single-sex schools [for boys] should employ a high proportion of Black male teachers because Black boys-often abandoned by their fathers-need Black male role models"). The educational crisis among African Americans, especially African American males, has reached a frightening level. A recent news report stated that the percentage of African American males going to college, as depressingly low as it once was, has in fact decreased in the last few years. See Ernesto PortilloJr., High School Achievers: Minority Grads Opted for School Over "Cool", SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIB.,June 17, 1994, at Al, A27. What is even more depressing are the reasons that young African Americans gave for choosing not to go to college: that it is not "cool" to appear brainy and studious, that they will become outsiders in the community of people that surround and matter to them. See id. One African American high school student said that he was called a "white boy" by another African American student because he was seen to be intelligent and studious. As this student put it, "You can't be cool if you're smart. That's the kind of thing I grew up with." Id. at Al. ' Professor Derrick Bell left the Harvard Law School after a long and unsuccessful ROLE MODELS 1379 particular racial minority group in and of itself makes an individual an appropriate role model for members of that group,6 and even whether characters in television programs can serve as appropriate (positive) role models for their audience. 7 "Role model" has campaign to persuade the school to hire an African American woman professor. Even though Harvard had a number of African American male professors, including Professor Bell himself, and several white female professors, Professor Bell felt that neither the male African American professors nor the white female professors could be role models for female African American students. See Fox Butterfield, Harvard Law School Torn By Race Issue, N.Y. TIMEs, Apr. 26, 1990, at A20. The issue also sparked a lawsuit against Harvard University brought by Harvard Law School students. See Harvard Law Sch. Coalition for Civil Rights v. President of Harvard College, 595 N.E.2d 316 (Mass. 1992). The students' complaint alleged that the absence of members of certain groups on the faculty was a result of the school's discriminatory hiring practice, which violated a Massachusetts law that prohibited discriminatory employment practices against certain protected groups. See id. at 317- 18. The SupremeJudicial Court of Massachusetts dismissed the complaint because the students did not have standing and partly because "the injuries they complain[ed] of-denial of 'perspectives,' 'life experiences,' and 'access to ... role models'-[were] not within the area of concerh of the statute." Id. at 319. The issue of role models in general as well as the specific question whether African American women law professors were needed as role models for African American women law students were explored in a symposium several years ago. See Symposium, Black Women Law Professors: Building a Community at the Intersection of Race and Gender, 6 BERKELEY WOMEN'S L.J. 1 (1990-1991) [hereinafter Black Women Law Professors]. The symposium was apparently inspired by, and was intended to be a response to, the controversy at Harvard. In the introduction to the symposium, Emma ColemanJordan writes: "We undertook these reflections in response to two widely-publicized events at Harvard Law School." Emma C.Jordan, Images of Black Women in the Legal Academy, 6 BERKELEY WOMEN'S L.J. 1, 4 (1990-1991). As Jordan put it, a response from African American women professors was necessary because, even though the controversy revolved around the need for African American women professors to act as role models for African American female students, the intense media coverage "contained a wide variety of comments and opinions, from black and white students at Harvard, from Harvard faculty and faculty at other schools.... [C]omments from black women law professors were a glaring omission from the body of opinion rapidly accumulating in the wake of Professor Bell's leave of absence." Id. 6 The recent controversy at Northwestern University School of Law involving the candidacy of a minority professor raised the issue of whether a black professor who has a white Australian father and a black Cuban mother, but who was born and raised in this country, could be an appropriate role model for black students in the school and therefore should be considered as a minority candidate.
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