Terry Smith on Race and Election Law Scholarship

Terry Smith offers this post on Blackprof.com. A snippet:

When the authors of the two leading texts in the election law area systematically omitted citation to all but one or two African-American scholars in the area, the proper question for them was not whether they had a racial motive, but rather, how can anyone purport to be a true scholar if they overlook a relevant body of scholarship--in a textbook, no less? And the question for all minority scholars when faced with a glaring oversight (or slight) such as this is whether we demur or flinch.

When I saw that these texts had favored student notes and white authors with placements in secondary journals to the work of minority scholars, I advised a white mentor that I would pen a joint letter, signed by other minority scholars, to the authors regarding their egregious omissions. The mentor-whom I believe to possess good intentions, though that is never dispositive for me-counseled me not to write such a letter because it would impede my ability to move to a higher-ranked law school. Wrong person. Although I could not gain a consensus regarding the joint letter, I have made it my business to point out when publications and symposia-especially those that directly implicate minority interests-neglect the contributions of scholars of color.

As one of the authors of those casebooks, I'll let others judge the fairness of these charges.

Posted by Rick Hasen at April 6, 2006 08:25 AM