What If It’s Always Been a Time of Polarization?

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Plaza B

Floor: Lobby Level

In some ways, the present moment is only an intensification of phenomena that have plagued communities of color—particularly Black and Brown communities—for decades. For communities of color, polarization is nothing new. As members of marginalized communities have begun to embrace identity politics and demand a social reconstruction that no longer excludes, many in the mainstream have characterized this pronunciation of difference as negative and suggested a return to the norms that were the hallmark of an older era. These norms relied on the courts as a bulwark against radicalism, shepherding change in increments so as not to ruffle the status quo. However, a return to the “un-polarized” norms of yesteryear is problematic in at least two ways: (1) the norms that existed were used in parallel ways to stifle, criminalize, and disenfranchise community members—indeed, it is these norms that have served as the bases for many of the injustices and polarization we see today; and (2) these norms have never existed in certain arenas, particularly those used to wield violence against communities of color.
This concurrent session is designed to explore how we can encourage, create, and lead conversations about social polarization with our students while acknowledging that prior norms were no panacea for many of our community members. In this especially malleable moment, future lawyers and the legal profession can and should play a role in creating norms and institutions, determining what the new normal looks like. We will present tangible tools that clinicians can use in pursuing these goals and in discussing how to effectively defend our wins, offensively tackle systemic injustices that create hurdles for change, and dream of alternatives to the norms that have perpetuated systems of subjugation and inequality.