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Topic: Fighting White Supremacy in the Courts and Legislatures

Professor Amour will discuss the forces that have created racialized mass incarceration and over-policed black communities. He argues that changing the situation requires a revolution in consciousness in matters of blame and punishment, and the rejection of the prevailing carceral conception of justice and the acceptance of a radically new one. It requires a basic overhaul in our collective moral compass, a transformational shift away from retribution, retaliation, and revenge and toward restoration, rehabilitation, and redemption. Voters in many places are electing prosecutors, lawmakers, and judges who embrace this new conception of justice and moral framework. Professor Amrour will also discuss the racial implications of competing conceptions of justice and why judges, lawmakers, and prosecutors who care about addressing systemic racism must be willing to think about crime and punishment in a fundamentally new way.

Taxes are racist too!

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The recent murder of George Floyd and other unarmed black people at the hands of the police have revitalized awareness and activism on dismantling white supremacy that filters through many systems in American society. The area of tax policy is no exception. Voices that sought to highlight the racial inequities in our tax laws and policies are finally getting voice within the field.

This essay seeks to build on this momentum. It continues the clarion call of those in the world of tax to continue to research and advocate for a more racially just tax system at all levels of government. It also urges those engaged in tax policy to reach out to communities of color to better understand their lived experiences and how various forms of taxation undermine the opportunity of equity.

The essay also calls on those who are advocates for civil rights and racial justice to engage more with the tax system. The unique views of these advocates can help alert tax experts to blind spots and can help to show the diversity of harms that different communities of color can face. It also encourages many more people who want to make racial justice to develop greater facility with the complexities of taxation.

IP Law is racist?

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Anjali Vats is interested in issues related to race, law, communication, and popular culture, with particular focus on intellectual property. Her book, The Color of Creatorship: Intellectual Property, Race and the Making of Americans (Stanford University Press, 2020), examines the relationship between copyright, patent, and trademark law, race, and national identity formation.