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103 Harv. L. Rev. 1864 (1989-1990)
Race Consciousness: The Thematic Content of Racial Distinctiveness in Critical Race Scholarship

handle is hein.journals/hlr103 and id is 1882 raw text is: RACE CONSCIOUSNESS: THE THEMATIC CONTENT OF RACIAL DISTINCTIVENESS IN CRITICAL RACE SCHOLARSHIP Robin D. Barnes* Holmesian jurisprudence explains how distinct minority legal per- spectives might be created. They are created in the same way that most legal perspectives are created: by culture, by values, and by community experiences and expectations.... To say that minority groups . . . have distinct perspectives or positions on legal matters that touch their lives, is perhaps no more stereotypical or deleterious than to observe that there is an American perspective on certain world issues .... I Minority perspectives make explicit the need for fundamental change in the ways we think and construct knowledge.2 In the context of this Response and Critical Race literature in general, the term perspective - rendered ambiguous by limitations of language - connotes a typification of minority points of view. Exposing how minority cultural viewpoints differ from white cultural viewpoints requires a delineation of the complex set of social interactions through which minority consciousness has developed. Distinguishing the con- sciousness of racial minorities requires acknowledgment of the feelings and intangible modes of perception unique to those who have histor- ically been socially, structurally, and intellectually marginalized in the United States. It also involves recognition of the manner in which racial discrimination intersects with other differentiating characteris- tics - such as gender, class, and sexual orientation - as a basis of oppression. Critical Race Theorists are attempting to integrate their experiential knowledge, drawn from a shared history as other, with * William H. Hastie Fellow, University of Wisconsin School of Law. I would like to extend a special thanks to Martha L. Fineman for her boundless support and energy. Likewise, I appreciate deeply the encouragement of Richard Delgado, who inspired me to write from the heart. I would also like to thank Chief Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. (United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit), Hendrick Hartog, and Benita Ramsey for their thoughtful comments. 1 Brooks, Civil Rights Scholarship: A Proposed Agenda for the Twenty-First Century, 20 U.S.F. L. REv. 397, 414 (1986). 2 According to Martha Minow: Scholars who challenge the implicit, unspoken assumption of objectivity in effect claim that knowledge depends on the interaction between the one who sees and what is seen. Reality is not discovered but constructed and invented - and this process of invention needs itself to be included within the search for knowledge. Minow, When Difference Has Its Home: Group Homes for the Mentally Retarded, Equal Protection and Legal Treatment of Difference, 22 HARv. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 111, 175 (1987). 1864

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