Federalist Society, Law Schools, Minority Issues, Racism

Continuing Misadventures in Law School Decor: Is This Poster Racist?

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Another day, another controversy over something hanging in a law school. Why is law school decor such a charged issue these days?

As some of may already know, I served as vice president of the Yale Federalist Society when I was in law school. My campaign was non-controversial. At the time, the VP was responsible for handling travel arrangements for visiting speakers, as well as for making restaurant reservations for post-talk dinners. In my speech, I talked about how much I enjoyed making travel arrangements, confessing that in high school my career goal was to become head concierge at a leading hotel. I won handily; it was a successful strategy.

I did not put up inflammatory posters that upset many members of the law school community and triggered a response from the dean — like the aspiring Fed Soc president at one midwestern law school.

Yes, we have pictures of the posters. Judge for yourself whether the posters, which have been removed, were racist and/or offensive….

A candidate for the Federalist Society presidency at the University of Illinois College of Law, who is running against an opponent who wasn’t born in the U.S., used this poster in his campaign:

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We’ve redacted the law student’s name, as we sometimes do with law school stories (in our discretion). For purposes of this post, we’ll call him “BIRTHER.”

But we understand from a source at the law school that the candidate in question is NOT, in fact, a birther. He’s just running against a foreign-born opponent — specifically, a Mexican national — and thought this would be a funny campaign theme.

“Funny? Or racist? There’s a division in the school over whether or not it is racist,” said one tipster. Some students complained to the Illinois Law administration.

My own personal take — please note that my politics are somewhat right-of-center, and my sensibilities are far from politically correct — is that this isn’t a huge deal. BIRTHER tried to make a funny, tongue-in-cheek reference to the ridiculous “controversy” over President Obama’s citizenship. It failed. The reference didn’t go over well, but that doesn’t make it “racist,” or even offensive.

(Of course, reasonable minds can differ on this. My colleague here at Above the Law, Elie Mystal, thought that I should write up this story, since he was so enraged that he couldn’t type straight.)

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We reached out to the College of Law administration for comment. A spokesperson provided us with a statement from Dean Bruce Smith that was circulated at the law school earlier today:

In a recent student election campaign, posters were displayed in the law building that caused offense to members of our community, one of which suggested that student voters should discriminate on the basis of national origin. The posters in question have been removed.

As Dean, I want to affirm two of our core institutional principles. First, the College of Law has a strong commitment to free speech and robust discourse. Second, we have a strong commitment to inclusivity, nondiscrimination, and a respectful learning environment.

This is a sound statement by Dean Smith. One can argue about whether the poster was seriously calling upon voters to “discriminate on the basis of national origin” or was just making a harmless joke about current events. But there’s no harm in the dean reaffirming the law school’s institutional commitment to (1) free speech and (2) nondiscrimination.

We also reached out to BIRTHER for comment. His response: “I have apologized for the posters, and I removed most of them myself.”

Readers, what do you think? Was the poster offensive? Take our reader poll below, and argue it out in the comments.

P.S. Another campaign poster by BIRTHER that was sent our way looked like this:

At first I wondered if this was some kind of Willie Horton tactic, but as it turned out, I just wasn’t hip enough to recognize Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Apparently BIRTHER had a series of campaign posters featuring sly pop culture references, and this was one of them.

Was the Illinois Federalist Society campaign poster offensive?

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DEAN BRUCE SMITH — UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF LAW — MEMORANDUM

Dear Members of the College of Law Community:

In a recent student election campaign, posters were displayed in the law building that caused offense to members of our community, one of which suggested that student voters should discriminate on the basis of national origin. The posters in question have been removed.

As Dean, I want to affirm two of our core institutional principles. First, the College of Law has a strong commitment to free speech and robust discourse. Second, we have a strong commitment to inclusivity, nondiscrimination, and a respectful learning environment.

Please feel free to speak with me should you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Bruce Smith

Bruce P. Smith
Dean and Guy Raymond Jones Faculty Scholar
University of Illinois College of Law

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