Uploaded June 2017 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
7th Annual Critical Race Studies Symposium
Whiteness As Property: A 20-Year Appraisal
Whiteness as Property: Broadening the Framework (October 3, Friday)
Timothy Golden analyzes the recent Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Inc., 573 U.S. _______ (2014), and its relationship to Employment Division of Human Resources v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990). Through this analysis, Golden attempts to answer these questions: Does a relationship exist between whiteness as a property right and religion? If so, then what is it? Does religion facilitate the enshrinement of whiteness as a property right in American legal traditions? Does the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) fulfill its intended purpose? Does RFRA protect religious liberty at the expense of racial justice? Brant T. Lee utilizes insights from cognitive and behavioral psychology to establish that modern race discrimination is carried out through autonomic, affective dispositions, rather than through conscious intent; thus, no racist intent or conspiracy is required in order to maintain systems of racial inequality. He then asks the question whether there is any moral obligation to address or correct racial inequality that is unfair, for which nobody in particular is to blame, since it is not the product of intentional malice. Nicholás Espíritu investigates wht the growth of populations with disaggregated citizenship – such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) – means for efforts to achieve social justice and democratic legitimation. Amanda Werner suggests that the rise of corporate privilege has played a major role in enabling ongoing racial inequities, evolving and expanding with modern “colorblind” jurisprudence to reify white domination through an ostensibly race-neutral mechanism.
Moderator: Sumit Baudh, UCLA School of Law, Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) Candidate 2016
Panelists:
Timothy Golden, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Frederick Douglass Institute, West Chester University of Pennsylvania; Cruel Irony: Legally Securing the Christian Dimension of Whiteness as Property
Brant T. Lee, Professor of Law, The University of Akron School of Law; From Self-Interest to Conscience
Nicholás Espíritu, Staff Attorney, National Immigration Law Center, Los Angeles office; J.D. UCLA School of Law ’02; Citizenship as Property
Amanda Werner, Legal Fellow, Office of US Senator Elizabeth Warren; J.D. UCLA School of Law ’14; Corporations are (White) People: How Corporate Privilege Reifies Whiteness as Property
7th Annual Critical Race Studies Symposium
Whiteness As Property: A 20-Year Appraisal
Whiteness as Property: Broadening the Framework (October 3, Friday)
Timothy Golden analyzes the recent Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Inc., 573 U.S. _______ (2014), and its relationship to Employment Division of Human Resources v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990). Through this analysis, Golden attempts to answer these questions: Does a relationship exist between whiteness as a property right and religion? If so, then what is it? Does religion facilitate the enshrinement of whiteness as a property right in American legal traditions? Does the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) fulfill its intended purpose? Does RFRA protect religious liberty at the expense of racial justice? Brant T. Lee utilizes insights from cognitive and behavioral psychology to establish that modern race discrimination is carried out through autonomic, affective dispositions, rather than through conscious intent; thus, no racist intent or conspiracy is required in order to maintain systems of racial inequality. He then asks the question whether there is any moral obligation to address or correct racial inequality that is unfair, for which nobody in particular is to blame, since it is not the product of intentional malice. Nicholás Espíritu investigates wht the growth of populations with disaggregated citizenship – such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) – means for efforts to achieve social justice and democratic legitimation. Amanda Werner suggests that the rise of corporate privilege has played a major role in enabling ongoing racial inequities, evolving and expanding with modern “colorblind” jurisprudence to reify white domination through an ostensibly race-neutral mechanism.
Moderator: Sumit Baudh, UCLA School of Law, Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) Candidate 2016
Panelists:
Timothy Golden, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Frederick Douglass Institute, West Chester University of Pennsylvania; Cruel Irony: Legally Securing the Christian Dimension of Whiteness as Property
Brant T. Lee, Professor of Law, The University of Akron School of Law; From Self-Interest to Conscience
Nicholás Espíritu, Staff Attorney, National Immigration Law Center, Los Angeles office; J.D. UCLA School of Law ’02; Citizenship as Property
Amanda Werner, Legal Fellow, Office of US Senator Elizabeth Warren; J.D. UCLA School of Law ’14; Corporations are (White) People: How Corporate Privilege Reifies Whiteness as Property
