DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AT GEORGETOWN LAW JOURNALS

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AT GEORGETOWN LAW

JOURNALS

This past summer, the editors-in-chief of our journals at Georgetown Law wrote

to our incoming members that 2020 was a “year of ref‌lection and radical change.”

Our nation’s conscience was f‌inally shaken by the tragic death of George Floyd,

and a wave of civic activism brought awareness to the longstanding issues of injus-

tice in policing and our penal system. Since that time, the devastation of the coro-

navirus pandemic has exposed deep inequalities in public health and our economy.

We also experienced an election that rocked our democracy and the rule of law to

its very core. A common thread in these 2020 episodes was the clearer vision they

provided of the issues emanating from our country’s oldest social wound: system-

atic racism.

In our roles as editors-in-chief, we have sought to ref‌lect on these global events

and our capacity to cultivate a more inclusive community within our own institu-

tion. We have had honest conversations about the historic lack of representation of

students of color within our publications’ membership and the journal commun-

ity’s role in perpetuating inequality. We have listened to our student community

regarding the impact of the 2020 summer protests and the ongoing pandemic. We

have discussed harmful pedagogical practices, such as Emeritus Professor Carrie

Menkel-Meadow’s use of the N-word in the classroom at the law school where she

now teaches and her refusal to apologize for the deep and inevitable harm her

actions caused. Through these conversations and collaboration amongst our jour-

nals, we have made commitments to promoting diversity and inclusion and reduc-

ing racial bias within the journal community.

Our class of editors-in-chief is historically diverse. In this historic year for our

country and community, we have a responsibility to lead by example on diver-

sity and inclusion. The journal community must take action—which means hav-

ing hard discussions, righting past wrongs, and, most importantly, “making

good by doing good.” Accordingly, we have made a collective effort to address

the issues of the past in order to advance equity in the future. To quote James

Baldwin, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be

changed until it is faced.”

Below we have outlined our goals for diversity and inclusion among Georgetown

journals, along with the steps we have taken this year and those that will be critical

in moving forward.

Leadership: Increase diverse representation in Journal Leadership and

Executive Boards.

�We have strived to ensure our Executive Board leadership includes a diver-

sity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

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