Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1995

Abstract

In this foreword for the inaugural issue of the African-American Law & Policy Report (ALPR), Professor Frank Rudy Cooper and his colleagues present articles, which contribute to the debate that this premier issue presents: an important discussion about race that majoritarian concerns impede. The majoritarian story basically states that race is not important or race can only be examined in a "colorblind" way or that race can only be considered if we do not upset the existing power arrangements that keep African Americans and other racial groups in their place. This journal is important to ventilate those concerns because the voices of the majority often cannot hear the cries of the less powerful. They drown them out while claiming to include. One way to turn this lack of power into voice and justice is to speak. To the authors, students, and faculty who will participate in this process in the future they say: "Speak out and describe the colors that you see." Such descriptions will empower those who come later to map the differences that still oppress many individuals simply because they are African American. Is there a danger that African-American people will see only their own colors and that they will speak only to each other? African Americans in that corner, Asian Americans in that corner, gays and Latinos in other places around the room. Yes, that is a real danger. However, it is a danger for the California Law Review and for our faculty meetings and for our classrooms. This inaugural issue of the ALPR certainly does not fall prey to that possibility. Race matters in how we see the consequences of various forms of "colorblindness". This journal allows important views about these issues to prod and pull and' infuriate and inspire those who want to alter the racial status quo.

Publication Citation

1 Afr.-Am. L. & Pol'y Rep. 1 (1995).

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