Complete video at: fora.tv
Controversial African-American cultural critic Randall Kennedy discusses Barack Obama's "crossover appeal" to white voters, in a conversation with Dean of UC-Berkeley School of Law Christopher Edley, Jr.
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Randall Kennedy in conversation with Christopher Edley, Jr.
Randall Kennedy is one the most outspoken and compelling commentators on race in America. Born in segregated South Carolina at the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement, Kennedy had early ambitions to become a Civil Rights attorney. The Rhodes Scholar graduated from Princeton University and then Yale Law School, earning a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall before joining the faculty of Harvard Law School.
Kennedy's work received national attention with the publication of his book Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. In the book, Kennedy dissects the most notorious racial slur in the American language and also examines the linguistic baggage behind such words as "racism," "discrimination," and "diversity." His new book Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal explores the idea of African-Americans denying their heritage to get ahead in society. Kennedy is a longtime professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on freedom of expression and the regulation of race relations - City Arts & Lectures
Christopher Edley, Jr. joined Boalt Hall as dean and professor of law in 2004, after 23 years as a professor at Harvard Law School. He earned a law degree and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University, where he served as an editor and officer of the Harvard Law Review. Edley's academic work is primarily in the areas of civil rights and administrative law. He has also taught federalism, budget policy, Defense Department procurement law, national security law, and environmental law. Edley was co-founder of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, a renowned multidisciplinary research and policy think tank focused on issues of racial justice.
His publications include Not All Black and White: Affirmative Action, Race and American Values and Administrative Law: Rethinking Judicial Control of Bureaucracy.
