Brown v. Board of Education and Missouri v. Jenkins: Through a Juridical and Cultural Subordination Lens

Abstract

Explicit racism and racial discrimination is slowly melting away from the United States’ culture, but rampant racial inequality is still prevalent. Brown v. Board of Education and similar cases taught the United States’ culture that racism and discrimination are toxic to a free society. But, sixty years after Brown, blacks still face a vast resource and opportunity disparity. This disparity can be attributed to socio-legal, socio-economic, and socio-cultural factors. Today, these factors can rear their heads as juridical, cultural, and racial subordination. Juridical subordination is when the Supreme Court discounts or ignores the equity interest of a subaltern group. By recognizing juridical subordination, the Supreme Court is open to civil rights criticism. Cultural subordination is when the cultural interests of a subaltern group are discounted or ignored by the mainstream culture, which is dominated by white middle class values. By recognizing cultural subordination, the United States’ culture is subject to civil rights criticism. Racial subordination is when people purposely ignore or discount matters of keen importance for racial advancement, without racist intent. By recognizing racial subordination, people’s non-racist actions and beliefs are open to civil rights criticism. This paper offers an alternative view of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Brown v. Board of Education and Missouri v. Jenkins. It does so by using the concepts of juridical and cultural subordination.