RACE, WHITE SUPREMACY AND BLACK LIBERATION by Kenneth Montgomery
Kenneth Montgomery is an adjunct professor at Fordham Law in the trial advocacy department, and a Professor in the Black Studies Department at Brooklyn College. He currently serves as a member of both the S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y. CJA panel and both Capital panels. He also serves on the federal death penalty working group in Washington, D.C. COLLAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARLIS KRAFT
After originally committing to do the article, I was, for several reasons, a bit hesitant to actually write it. The first reason is that I don’t think it’s the responsibility of Black people to teach, remind or explain to White people how immoral racism is, nor how much America owes its society to the oppression and alienation of Black people in its colonial democracy. Let’s be honest, White people in America don’t have to deal with race as a matter of survival, their privilege ensures that. I was especially hesitant to write something for a readership of mostly White criminal defense attorneys, considering that so many of our clients are Black and Brown and the majority of prosecutors, judges, law clerks and jurors are White. If there is any group of White Americans who are in position to have insight and context to the insidiousness and destructive nature of race in America as applied to Black people, it is the criminal defense bar. You would think so, right!? So many of my White peers have overheard racist dog whistles or overt racism Continued on next page
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Atticus | Volume 33 Number 1 | Winter 2021 | New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
