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Group A Livia Kirby Camille Bradley Gio Henry Group B Ella Carlos Josh Noah Tutu Sambhav Pairings for the first two weeks: Livia and Carlos Kirby and Noah Camille and Tutu Henry and Sambhav Bradley and Ella Gio and Josh

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(Camille) Harris: Definitions, Customs, and Legitimation

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What fascinated me the most about this reading was Harris’ account of the relationship between power, customs, reification, legitimation, and the law. Based on her argument, a harmful evolution exists of concepts like whiteness becoming reified through customs and legitimated into law. The consequence of this process is that “the law masks what is the chosen as natural; it obscures the consequence of social selection as inevitable” (1777). Even though “whiteness” began as an “ideological proposition imposed through subordination of ‘others,’” it has acquired a meaning and privilege that operates with “phantom objectivity” (1730). This then makes it harder to challenge deeply ingrained customs and laws that have become masked with the veil of being “natural.” Harris asks us to examine the “dynamic and multifaceted relationship among custom, command, and law” (1727). Two examples that illustrate this concept are the seizures of Mashpee land and the use of arguments around “merit” or int...
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Carlos: Harris' Appeal to the Law of Nature

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From Locke's Second Treatise, we learn that humans have both a right of nature and a law of nature, where our right is protected and the law is unbreakable. However, when considering Harris's argument that the right to whiteness as property should not be protected, it might seem like she goes against Lockean reason. After all, to be white is a part of one's self, the most fundamental property. We all have a right to protect our property and no one can take our property with our consent. However, when considering the law of nature, Harris' argument for denying protection to whiteness as property falls more in line with Locke's beliefs.  The law of nature requires that all humans treat others the same way as they would treat themselves for we are all equal (the golden rule). Nevertheless, in Part I and II, Harris describes how the notion of whiteness is inherently based on the oppression and subordination of others. The systems of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and even anti...
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Harris "Whiteness as Property", Livia: The Role of the Judiciary

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    Within “Whiteness as Property”, Cheryl Harris speaks to the limitations of the United States’ legal system in addressing inequality. In particular, Harris mentions Brown I , which reversed the infamous “separate but equal” concept in Plessy . While this court case aptly rejected white privilege a legal right, it failed to account for “de-facto white privilege not mandated by law” (Harris 1753). Harris explains that one reason the court might not have fully addressed the full spectrum of existing abuses was a fear that the judicial branch would have been too involved within the operations of public schools. She pushes back against this fear, remarking that “it is unacceptable for the Court to ignore the infringement of violation of Constitutionality protected right because of concerns about the proper institutional role of the judiciary” (Harris 1753). Within this blog post, I want to push back against this premise that it was unfair for the judiciary to be cognizant of the...
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