#BEbooks: "Whitelash" - an interview w/ Terry Smith
Author of upcoming book presents a unique legal perspective against discriminatory voting
a #RealityCheck | #BEbooks
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In his soon-to-be-released book “Whitelash: Unmasking White Grievance at the Ballot Box” law professor Terry Smith presents a unique legal perspective on White voter behavior in elections. His argument: if public and private institutions are not allowed, by law, to discriminate on the basis of race why are we allowing White voters to discriminate through their political choices during elections?
Charles Ellison of WURD’s Reality Check talks with Smith about Whitelash. The full interview can be heard here …
“I use a series of legal analogies to help orient the reader,” notes Smith. “My analogies often ask you to equate the voter with an employer who is making a hiring decision. At other times, you are an employee who stands to be adversely impacted by an employer’s arbitrary decision-making, in much the same way as a voter is negatively affected by a politician’s refusal to rely on facts when making decisions. Sometimes, you are placed in the shoes of a juror who, like a voter, must adjudicate the merits of a case that has two sides. What is the commonality among these heuristics? In each, racial discrimination is forbidden. Why, then, should we allow it in candidate elections?”
Whitelash will be released by Cambridge University Press in January 2020