Does the Constitution have a racist tenet? Brandon Hasbrouck affirms that.
In Boston University Law Review article “The Antiracist Constitution,” the Washington and Lee University professor alleges our nation’s founding document “serves white supremacy.”
He bolsters his argument with George Floyd’s death, the Fugitive Slave Act, and the fact that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.
A peculiarity is pointed out by the professor
It is now June 28th, 1776. The Continental Congress orders that Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence “lie on the table.” … Jefferson, who enslaves hundreds of people, nonetheless includes an assertion that “all men are created equal.”
We are now moving on to the fugitive slaves
September 18th, 1850. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act… The new law requires government officials to assist in capturing persons accused of escaping slavery on nothing more than an affidavit, allowing free Black people to be enslaved without any right to defend themselves in court.
Last, but certainly not the least:
It’s May 29, 2020. Omar Jimenez and his CNN news crew report on the racial justice protests following George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. While Jimenez’s crew broadcasts live, police order them to move. Jimenez agrees to let his crew move, and then asks where they should go. Jimenez is arrested by police who refuse to answer his questions. Police around the country routinely target journalists as they violently suppress demonstrations in the month that follows.
There were unimaginable violent riots that occurred at the time. Regardless, how the above incriminates America’s enshrined principles isn’t clear. But for another chink in the Constitution’s armor, the instructor insists it’s racist as it doesn’t see color:
Some of the most outrageously racist cases in recent years have seen the Court rely on constitutional colourblindness to explain why it won’t attempt to address reasoning or remedies based on race. Advocates of such colorblindness believe that an ideal society will not make any discrimination on the basis or race. Therefore, we must strive to attain this state. These advocates are most determined to eradicate racism from society and eliminate racial discriminations in the law. Or perhaps I should say that they claim to seek this — my thesis is less charitable as to their goals.
He decries “the rhetorical weaponization of colorblindness,” a practice whose “life as a constitutional doctrine is inextricably bound up with its white supremacist introduction to Supreme Court jurisprudence.”
The concept of virtue has undergone a major transformation over the years. The United States went from enforcing segregation to hailing colorless unity in an embrace of MLK’s dream. It abruptly abandoned that vision and returned to its racial roots. These days, we’re again being assessed according to skin. We’ve even revived the grouping of Whites and Nonwhites — AKA “people of color.”
Our evolution is apropos:
Cartoon Network Educates Kids on Racial Righteousness: It Must Not Be Colorblind
The College Op-Ed asks whether white people should be kicked out parties
UC Berkeley Professor Tells Students That Abolishing Whiteness Is Like Wiping Out White People
Pandering Tastes Like Chicken: Christian College Hosts ‘People of Color’ Appreciation Lunch
Tennessee University Segregates Students for ‘Antiracism’ Training, Hails the Absence of White People as ‘Magical’
Brandon estimates that slavery still exists.
White supremacy is served by the Constitution as it stands and how it was interpreted in court. Openly hostile institutions first impede the twin project of abolition, and later by the less obvious lie that a colorblind Constitution will bring down racism. Colorblind Constitutionalism made its Supreme Court debut promising that no facially discriminatory laws would be necessary to perpetuate white supremacy. As modern white supremacists use insidiously facially neutral laws for the oppression and persecution of Blacks, this promise is being fulfilled in nearly all areas of law.
Campus Reform observed that an assistant professor of law has a plan for tremendous improvement.
Hasbrouck says that positive reforms would include the abolition of police, carceral (prison abolition) and property reparations.
So goes his exploration of “what an antiracist Constitution would look like in practice.”
We’re in the midst of change. Many — in academia, government, and the media — want a new America. They’re working diligently toward that end.
We are what we can become. If some have their way, I’d say something revolutionary.
It’s a new day in America…
‘Justice Correspondent’ Takes out the ‘Trash’ — AKA the Constitutionhttps://t.co/t465g8Jy14
— Alex Parker (@alexparker1984) March 7, 2022
-ALEX
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It’s Official: California State University Has Permanently Abandoned Standardized Testing
University Whacks ‘Women’s’ History Month, Hails the Wonders of ‘Womxn’
State University Offers ‘Race and Resistance Studies’ Major Promoting ‘Radicalism and Revolution’
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