Document Type
Note
Publication Title
Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives
Publication Date
2017
Volume
9
First Page
123
Abstract
(Excerpt)
I would not wish my law school experience on my worst enemy. Georgetown University Law Center (GULC), my social-justice focused law school, has largely ignored the recent racially-motivated, legally-upheld killings of people of color and their effects on marginalized communities. As an African-American law student from a welfare-reliant household, GULC's silence has been especially painful because it suggests that my law school does not care about events that impact my community.
At each critical point of my first year in law school, GULC remained silent to the nationally recognized, racially-motived, and repeated police killings of unarmed African-American men. On July 14, 2014, New York police officers killed Eric Garner. My law school was silent. As I shopped for dorm room supplies on August 9, 2014, Darren Wilson, a Ferguson police officer, killed Michael Brown Jr. My law school remained silent. Toward the end of the fall semester, my Constitutional Law professor inappropriately laughed when a student said, "American slavery was not a big deal." A few days later, a grand jury failed to indict Darren Wilson for Michael Brown Jr.'s murder. My law school remained silent. As I studied for finals, an Ohio police officer killed Tamir Rice. My law school remained silent. As I completed a twenty-four-hour Contracts exam, protesters chanted, "No justice! No peace! No racist police!" outside my dorm room window. My law school remained silent.