RITM Asian American Studies Speaker Series: Claire Jean Kim, “Anti-Blackness, Asian Americans, and White Supremacy: Affirmative action and the persistent structures of racial power”

Event time: 
Wednesday, April 10, 2019 - 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: 
Asian American Cultural Center (CRWN295) See map
295 Crown Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Speaker/Performer: 
Claire Jean Kim

This lecture uses the recent lawsuit filed by Asian American plaintiffs against Harvard University to explore the ways that Asian Americans have been figured (and have figured themselves) in U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence on race-conscious admissions in higher education. Kim argues that Asian Americans have long played a critical role in the legal-ideological project of undermining the specific claims of anti-Black subordination, and demonstrates that new frameworks of racial positionality are necessary to help us understand and challenge persistent structures of racial power.

Event Description
Professor Kim’s lecture will shed light on the pending affirmative action lawsuit filed by Asian American plaintiffs against Harvard University by providing a brief history of how Asian Americans have been figured (and have figured themselves) in U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence on race-conscious admissions in higher education. It shows that the figuration of Asian Americans has played a critical role in the legal-ideological project of despecifying black subjection and disavowing racial positionality in the U.S. social order, from Bakke to the present, and argues that a new ‘sociometry’ of race is necessary to help us understand and challenge persistent structures of racial power.

This event is part of the RITM Asian American Studies Speaker Series.