Understanding Latinx Anti-Blackness Through the Lens of Equality Law ( A Samuel J. Konefsky Lecture)

Professor Hernandez will share insights from her book Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias (and its Spanish version Inocencia Racial: Desenmascarando la antinegritud de los latinos y la lucha por la igualdad). Racial Innocence is the first comprehensive book about anti-Black bias in the U.S. Latino community that unpacks the misconception that Latinos are “exempt” from racism due to their ethnicity and multicultural background. The book challenges preconceived notions of what is racism and bias and demonstrates that it’s possible for a historically marginalized group to experience discrimination and also be discriminatory. Racism is deeply complex, and law professor and comparative race relations expert Tanya Katerí Hernández exposes “the Latino racial innocence cloak” that often veils Latino complicity in racism. Based on interviews, discrimination case files, and civil rights law, Hernández reveals Latino anti-Black bias in the workplace, the housing market, schools, places of recreation, the criminal justice system, and Latino families. By using the lens of the Constitution's 14th Amendment equality principle, Latino anti-Blackness is both revealed and provided a path for resistance.
The Konefsky Lecture is an annual event that honors Samuel J. Konefsky, an alum of BC who became a professor of constitutional law at BC from the 1940s to 1970. BC President Michelle J. Anderson will deliver opening remarks at this year’s event.