A nearly all White female jury found George Zimmerman not guilty for the murder of seventeen year-old Trayvon Martin. What does this say about the role of identities and how they shape the life outcomes of marginal groups? The discussion will explore the matrix of oppression of race, gender and sexuality in the historical lynching of black men and the contemporary prosecution of black males and masculinity in particular. The Trayvon Martin case forced our nation to examine our progress on racial equality, and though we have anti-lynching legislation we must examine whether Stand Your Ground law bears a new strange fruit. Can we as a nation shift our racial dynamic to escape the inequities of our history and present reality? Has that dynamic already shifted? These and other questions will be explored in this lecture.
Jasmine Rand is the founding attorney of RAND LAW, L.L.C., a Miami-based civil litigation firm. Known for her representation of the Trayvon Martin family, Rand excels in the civil rights arena, has posted multimillion-dollar recoveries in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases, and is currently involved in police brutality cases throughout the nation from the LAPD to the NYPD. Rand frequently appears as a national legal analyst on CNN, MSNBC, HLN, Fox and numerous international television networks and has broadcast in Jamaica, Colombia, and Japan. In addition to her dynamic legal practice, Rand is an active professor and has performed legal analyst work throughout the world. Most recently, Rand guest lectured at Harvard Law on Stand Your Ground laws, at Universite Mohammed V law school in Rabat, Morocco, and the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. In January 2014 Rand traveled to the Kingdom of Morocco to assist the King and Supreme Court Justices on implementing international human rights standards throughout its judicial system. In 2012 Rand received the Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law’s national Distinguished Civil Rights Advocate Award, “For fulfilling the legal profession’s highest ideal in advancing equal justice for all.” In 2013 Rand was recognized by IMPACT and the National Bar Association as one of the Nation’s Best Advocates Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 in the United States.
Co-sponsored by: Research and Graduate Studies, MLK Committee, Career Services, Africana Studies and Dialogue Center.