Courageous classrooms: Embracing antiracist legal pedagogy

Abstract

Law schools have a tremendous responsibility to train lawyers who will be well‐positioned to challenge the racial disparities and systemic inequities created and perpetuated by the legal system. This article offers a pedagogical approach to creating an antiracist classroom space that equips students with the skills attorneys need to work in cross‐cultural, antiracist solidarity with a diverse population of clients to address critical legal issues and dismantle oppressive legal systems. It draws from a law school course that teaches essential lawyering skills to first‐year law students through social justice work on behalf of public interest organizations. The article introduces concrete experiential exercises that can be used to support faculty in any clinical or doctrinal law school classroom in furthering antiracist pedagogical goals and their own antiracist development. These exercises are designed to help students (1) build a collective understanding of racial justice terminology; (2) co‐construct powerful, client‐centered stories that counter harmful, stereotypical narratives; and (3) make critical connections between their lived experiences and the structures and systems they are critiquing to help shape their professional identities.