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Randall.L.Kennedy (Vintage, 2003) Among the Most Incisive American Commentators on Race

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Randall.L.Kennedy (Vintage, 2003) Among the Most Incisive American Commentators on Race Affirmative Action Sunday 24th November / Hôtel de Région The author Zoom Randall L. Kennedy, born September 10, 1954 in Columbia, The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Oba- South Carolina is an American Law professor and author at ma Presidency ( Pantheon, 2011) Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the Renowned for his insightful, common-sense Michael R. Klein Professor of Law and focuses his research on the critiques of racial politics, Randall Kennedy intersection of racial conflict and legal institutions in American gives us a shrewd and penetrating analysis life. He supervises written work and accepts press inquiries of the complex relationship between the first regarding the topics of contracts, freedom of expression, race black president and his African-American relations law, civil rights legislation and the Supreme Court. constituency. Kennedy tackles such hot-button issues as Through numerous appearances on the lecture circuit, Kennedy the nature of racial opposition to Obama; continues to promote debate on hot-button racial issues in the whether Obama has a singular responsibility public arena. "If you are socially isolated" he told Regan Goode to African Americans; the differences in in The New York Times, "you are more vulnerable to stereotypes Obama’s presentation of himself to blacks and to whites; the and myths, you won’t have the opportunity to have conversations challenges posed by the dream of a post-racial society; the with someone who has a different social background than you." increasing irrelevance of a certain kind of racial politics and its While many critics have attempted to use Kennedy’s work consequences; the complex symbolism of Obama’s achievement to advance their own agendas, he has retained his academic and his own obfuscations and evasions regarding racial justice. independence. " Against black pessimists" wrote Galston and Eschewing the critical excesses of both the left and the right, Wasserman, Kennedy argues that substantial progress has been Kennedy offers an incisive view of Obama’s triumphs and made toward the ideal of color-blind justice. Against complacent travails, his strengths and weaknesses, as they pertain to the whites, he argues that there is still a long way to go." The troubled history of race in America. relationship between white and black America, Kennedy noted, remains one of America’s most perplexing problems." Obviously there are all sorts of ethnic, racial conflicts in American society," Kennedy told Smith, "but there’s one that is deeper than all the others and that’s white/black racial conflict." Kennedy currently serves as a Trustee of Princeton University. Bibliography Press The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Oba- “ A provocative and richly insightful new book . A breath of D.R ma Presidency ( Pantheon, 2011) fresh air.” Brent Staples, The New York Times Book Review Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal (Vintage,2009) Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, Pantheon “ A powerful and ruminative book. Kennedy has long been Randall.L.Kennedy (Vintage, 2003) among the most incisive American commentators on race. His Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption books . seem to be carved from intellectual granite, yet they (Vintage, 2003) have human scale. So resonant and so personal. Pay attention too to this book’s many ringing sentences.” USA Race, Crime, and the Law (Vintage, 1998) Dwight Garner, The New York Times Du 12 au 24 novembre 2013 / Un événement conçu et réalisé par la Villa Gillet / www.villagillet.net / 1 Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity Race, Crime, and the Law (Vintage, 1998) (Vintage,2009) Word (Pantheon Vintage, 2003) and Adoption (Vintage, 2003) In this incisive and unflin- It’s “the nuclear bomb of In Interracial Intimacies, " An original, wise and ching study, Randall Kennedy, racial epithets,” a word that Randall Kennedy hits a nerve courageous work that moves author of Nigger: The Strange whites have employed to at the center of American beyond sterile arguments Career of a Troublesome wound and degrade African society: race relations and and lifts the discussion of Word, tackles another stigma Americans for three centu- our most intimate ties to race and justice to a new and of America’s racial discourse: ries. Paradoxically, among each other. Writing with the more hopeful level." Arthur “selling out.” He explains the many black people it has same piercing intelligence Schlesinger, Jr. origins of the concept and become a term of affection he brought to his national In this groundbreaking, shows how fear of this label and even empowerment. bestseller Nigger: The powerfully reasoned, lucid has haunted prominent mem- The word, of course, is nig- Strange Career of a work that is certain to bers of the black community—including, most ger, and in this candid, lucidly argued book the Troublesome Word, Kennedy here challenges provoke controversy, Harvard law professor recently, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and distinguished legal scholar Randall Kennedy us to examine how prejudices and biases still Randall Kennedy takes on a highly complex Barack Obama. Sellout also contains a rigo- traces its origins, maps its multifarious conno- fuel fears and inform our sexual, marital, and issue in a way that no one has before. Kennedy rously fair case study of America’s quintessen- tations, and explores the controversies that family choices. uncovers the long-standing failure of the tial racial “sellout”—Supreme Court Justice rage around it. Analyzing the tremendous changes in the justice system to protect blacks from criminals, Clarence Thomas. In the book’s final section, Should blacks be able to use nigger in ways for- history of America’s racial dynamics, Kennedy probing allegations that blacks are victimized Kennedy recounts how he himself has dealt bidden to others? Should the law treat it as a takes us from the injustices of the slave era on a widespread basis by racially discriminatory with accusations of being a sellout after mee- provocation that reduces the culpability of those up to present-day battles over race matching prosecutions and punishments, but he also ting fierce criticism at Harvard upon the publi- who respond to it violently? Should it cost a per- adoption policies, which seek to pair children engages the debate over the wisdom and cation of his book, Nigger. son his job, or a book like Huckleberry Finn its with adults of the same race. He tackles such legality of using racial criteria in jury selection. place on library shelves? With a range of refe- subjects as the presence of sex in racial politics, He analyzes the responses of the legal system rence that extends from the Jim Crow south to the historic role of legal institutions in policing to accusations that appeals to racial prejudice Chris Rock routines and the O. J. Simpson trial, racial boundaries, and the real and imagined have rendered trials unfair, and examines Kennedy takes on not just a word, but our laws, pleasures that have attended interracial the idea that, under certain circumstances, attitudes, and culture with bracing courage and intimacy. A bracing, much-needed look at members of one race are statistically more intelligence. the way we have lived in the past, Interracial likely to be involved in crime than members of Intimacies is also a hopeful book, offering a another. potent vision of our future as a multiracial democracy. Du 12 au 24 novembre 2013 / Un événement conçu et réalisé par la Villa Gillet / www.villagillet.net / 2.
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