Neil Gotanda
Neil Gotanda is Professor of Law in the College of Law at the Western State University College. Professor Gotanda has extensive experience in the classroom and in practice. He taught at California Western, City University of New York, and Duquesne University before coming to WSU in 1986. He has also worked with the Asian Law Caucus, California Rural Legal Assistance and the California Fair Employment Commission. His litigation experience includes trials and appeals involving employment discrimination, civil rights, and constitutional law.
Abstract
"Origins of Racial Categorization in Colonial Virginia:
Exploring a Framework for Comparative Racial Analysis"
An examination of the racial history of Asian Americans reveals a variety of experiences. A comparative analysis of this history shows how racial practices are both similar and different for different racial groups in America. To better describe this complex history, I suggest that three considerations—racial category, racial body, and racial profile are sufficient for a rich comparative analysis. To test this approach, I revisit my own early research in which I argue that the origins of Black-White racial categorization should be located in the early colonial era in the origins of American chattel slavery. I conclude that my earlier work is consistent with my analytical framework for comparative racialization.
This topic will be presented on Friday, April 17th at 1:00 p.m. as part of the Panel II discussion "Historical Formations of Race.
Select Publications
Editor (with Kimberlé Crenshaw, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas), “Critical Race Theory: Key Writings that Formed the Movement,” The New Press, 1995.
“Comparative Racialization: Racial Profiling and the Case of Wen Ho Lee,” UCLA Law Review 47, 2000.
“Citizenship Nullification: The Impossibility of Asian American Politics,” in Asian American in Politics: Perspectives, Experiences, Prospects, ed. Gordon H. Chang, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Stanford University Press, 2000.
“Exclusion and Inclusion: Immigration and American Orientalism,” in Across the Pacific: Asian Americans and Globalization," ed. Evelyn Hu DeHart, Temple University Press, 1999.
“Race, Citizenship and the Search for Political Community Among “We The People,” Oregon Law Review 76, 1997.
