‘Our default setting is one that sees the world through white values – unless programmed otherwise,’ writes Lurie Daniel-Favors in this week’s Pambazuka News. With reference to the US legal system, Daniel-Favors argues that ‘white judges have the privilege of acting as though their race and rationale are the default setting from which every other race and rationale deviate’. When white judges ‘use the law to rule in favour of white interests’, their rulings are seen an unbiased application of...read more
‘Our default setting is one that sees the world through white values – unless programmed otherwise,’ writes Lurie Daniel-Favors in this week’s Pambazuka News. With reference to the US legal system, Daniel-Favors argues that ‘white judges have the privilege of acting as though their race and rationale are the default setting from which every other race and rationale deviate’. When white judges ‘use the law to rule in favour of white interests’, their rulings are seen an unbiased application of the law’, says Daniel-Favors. But when judges of colour are confronted with making decisions ‘that might in some way give some benefit to people of colour’ or ‘make a decision that impinges on white freedom’, they face criticism for ‘making decisions based on “race” or “personal” politics’.