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Randall Kennedy    

Professor at Harvard Law School

 Mr. Kennedy was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Race, Crime, and the Law, Mr. Kennedy writes for a wide range of scholarly and general interest publications, and sits on the editorial boards of The Nation, Dissent, and The American Prospect. A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy was awarded an honorary degree by Haverford College and is a former trustee of Princeton University.

Speech Topics


The Race Line in American Life

Kennedy canvasses the many ways in which racial lines have been drawn overtly and, covertly, self- consciously and unconsciously. Many people claim that, with certain exceptions (such as affirmative action or racial profiling by law enforcement authorities), relatively little invidious discrimination impedes the forward progress of racial minorities. Kennedy examines that claim, considering the results of audits involving automobile transactions, employment applications, the receipt of tips by cab drivers, and the provision of medical care.

The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency

Renowned for his well reasoned approach to the pitfalls and cliches of racial discourse, Randall Kennedy takes on the complex relationship between the first black president and his African American constituency. Kennedy tackles hot-button issues like the nature of racial opposition to Obama, whether Obama has any special responsibility to African Americans, the increasing irrelevance of traditional racial politics and the consequences thereof, black patriotism and its antithesis, the differences between Obama's presentation of himself to blacks and whites and the challenges posed by the dream of a post-racial society.

Eschewing the critical excesses of both the left and the right, Kennedy's talk offers an insightful view of Obama's triumphs, travails, strengths and weaknesses, as they pertain to the troubled history of race in America.

Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

In this lecture, Randall Kennedy focuses on key words in the ongoing conversation about American race relations. In the linguistic baggage that Kennedy unpacks are such words as "racism," "discrimination," and "diversity." At the core of the talk is the most notorious racial slur in the English language and the basis for his New York Times bestseller, Nigger.

For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law

What precisely is affirmative action, and why is it fiercely championed by some and just as fiercely denounced by others? Does it signify a boon or a stigma? Or is it simply reverse discrimination? What are its benefits and costs to American society? What are the exact indicia determining who should or should not be accorded affirmative action? When should affirmative action end, if it must? Randall Kennedy gives us a concise, gimlet-eyed, and deeply personal conspectus of the policy, refusing to shy away from the myriad complexities of an issue that continues to bedevil American race relations.

In this talk, Kennedy accounts for the slipperiness of the term “affirmative action” as it has been appropriated by ideologues of every stripe; delves into the complex and surprising legal history of the policy; coolly analyzes key arguments pro and con advanced by the left and right, including the so-called color-blind, race-neutral challenge; critiques the impact of Supreme Court decisions on higher education; and ponders the future of affirmative action.

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