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36 ¦ SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 OPINION

How Not to Respond to America’s Racial
Reckoning: Lessons From Yale Law School

By The Yale Law School Black Law Students Association Executive Board ‘20-’21

Y Yale Law School courtyard.
ale Law School’s response to our nation’s ra- community, along with a note that George Floyd
cial reckoning has been woefully inadequate. and Breonna Taylor’s names would be added to
In the days following the murder of George the wall of a stairwell in the law school where the
Floyd, the Yale Law community was forebodingly names of police murder victims are collected — a
quiet. Amongst emails updating our class grades tacit acceptance of the status quo. That said, the
and daily Yale newsletters, there was scarcely a Dean did implore us to “turn with clear eyes to
mention of the horrific murder of George Floyd, the posters on our walls” as they “remind us how
the latest loss in a centuries long attack on Black much work is left to do.” To be clear, this is merely
communities. It was six days after George Floyd’s an eloquent way of saying absolutely nothing.
murder and the resulting protests overwhelming In June, with no clear path toward change from
the country, that our Dean decided to send a mes- the YLS administration, the Yale Black Law Stu-
sage to the law school community. dents Association (YBLSA), released our own
This message presented no meaningful steps letter to the YLS community (which we are also
about how the administration would address posting to our Instagram account). In addition to
the school’s complicity in perpetuating racial expressions of outrage, it included a call for our
inequality. Instead, it offered platitudes to our peers to get engaged in anti-racist efforts, as well

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