Cheryl I. Harris: A Biography of a Leading Scholar in Critical Race Theory

Cheryl I. Harris is a highly influential American legal scholar and critical race theorist. She is currently the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at UCLA School of Law. Her work critically examines the relationship between law and racial power, particularly in areas such as anti-discrimination law, property relations, and conceptions of debt.

Early Life and Education

Harris is a graduate of Wellesley College and Northwestern School of Law.

Career

Early Career

After graduating from law school, Harris began her career as an appellate and trial litigator at leading criminal defense firms in Chicago. During this time, she also dedicated herself to pro bono work, contributing to major civil and human rights projects. These projects included police oversight measures and the development of anti-apartheid sanctions legislation. Her involvement in these initiatives demonstrates her early commitment to addressing issues of racial justice and inequality.

She began teaching law in 1990 at Chicago-Kent College of Law. As a professor, she delved into various aspects of law, including Constitutional Law, Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination, Critical Race Theory, and Race Conscious Remedies.

During her time at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Harris also engaged with legal scholars and South African lawyers during the development of South Africa’s first democratic constitution, ratified in 1994. This experience further shaped her understanding of the interconnections between racial theory, civil rights practice, politics, and human rights.

Harris served as a senior legal advisor in the City Attorney’s office as part of the reform administration of Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago.

UCLA School of Law

In 1998, Harris joined the faculty at UCLA School of Law, where she became a founding member of the law school’s Critical Race Studies Program. She has served as its faculty director several times, playing a crucial role in shaping the program's direction and impact. Additionally, she served as UCLA's Department of African American Studies chair from 2014-2016, during the developmental years of the program.

Visiting Scholar and Writer in Residence

In 2019, Harris was a visiting scholar at RMIT University in Melbourne, building on her research on race and indigeneity. She has also been a fellow at Princeton’s Law and Public Affairs Program and was selected to be a writer in residence at Hedgebrook in 2019.

Recognition and Awards

Harris has been widely recognized for her contributions to legal education and civil rights. She received the ACLU Foundation of Southern California’s Distinguished Professor Award for Civil Rights Education in 2005 and the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2018. In 2022, she was awarded UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award. These awards are among UCLA’s highest honors for contributions to advancing a welcoming and positive environment at the university.

Scholarship

Harris's scholarship critically examines the relationship between law and racial power across several areas, including anti-discrimination law, property relations, and, more recently, conceptions of debt. Her work is deeply rooted in critical race theory, which challenges traditional legal perspectives by highlighting the role of race and racism in shaping legal systems and outcomes.

Read also: The making of Kamala Harris

Harris has lectured widely at universities and conferences in the US, England, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

"Whiteness as Property"

Harris is most renowned for her paper, "Whiteness as Property," published in the June 1993 edition of the Harvard Law Review. This paper is considered a foundational document in modern critical race theory.

In "Whiteness as Property," Harris introduces the concept that "whiteness" is based not on mere biological difference but is instead constructed on supremacy and domination. She argues that whiteness functions as a form of property in society through both the privileges it allows (both written in law and public practice) and the exclusion of other races from said privilege. Harris's insights on the paper were shaped in part by her earlier work as an organizer of dialogue between legal scholars hailing from the United States and South African lawyers during the expansion of South Africa's establishing democratic constitution.

Harris argues that the concept of whiteness as property developed alongside the institution of chattel slavery in the United States and continued into the era of segregation, where racial identity determined access to freedom in every aspect. She draws on historical interpretations of what qualifies as property to further her point, including Founding Father James Madison's 1792 essay entitled "Property," from which Harris quotes Madison's belief that property "embraces every thing to which a man may attach a value and have a right." Harris utilizes Madison's broad definition to demonstrate that, in the founding era of the United States, property was understood to include not only material possessions but also a range of crucial personal liberties.

Harris discusses the historical phenomenon of racial "passing" to highlight the absurdity and artificiality of racial identity. Drawing on the experiences of her grandmother and thousands of others in the antebellum South and greater United States, Harris reflects on how these individuals managed to cross racial barriers despite being considered Black according to the "one-drop rule." Harris argues that despite these individuals appearing white and being accepted into the white community, the law demanded that blood alone be treated as the definer of race. Harris points out that these legal categorizations were erratic and unreliable but were ultimately served to protect whiteness as an exclusive, valuable form of property. By insisting on rigid legal boundaries even when social interactions contradicted them, the law reinforced racial superiority so that "even blacks who did not look black were kept in their place." Furthermore, Harris elaborates on the mental toll that "passing" maintained on those able to, and she makes the distinction that this act was wholly involuntary and one of both self-preservation and self-sacrifice.

In the article, Harris investigates the ties between racial identity and economic class, examining the inclination of white working-class people to align themselves with white elites in lieu of black working-class individuals with whom they possess far more congruities. Harris cites W.E.B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction, in which Du Bois outlines the benefits of this association of race above class.

"Whiteness as Property" remains Harris's most notable and cited work, but she remains a consistent contributor to the academic sphere of critical race theory, examining the relationships between law, race, and inequality.

Other Scholarly Contributions

Harris has also contributed to discussions on racial capitalism, particularly in the context of California. Her work contemplates California’s particular place in the West and the role of race in housing, labor, policing, war making, and jails. She considers California and the West a necessary geographical framework for understanding historical, present, and future iterations of racial capitalism.

Her scholarship also addresses the relationship between dispossession and race, arguing that racialized dispossession is not episodic but is a pattern, part of the afterlife of slavery, that functions through the mechanisms of debt and development or “improvement.”

Harris is currently working on a revision of Derrick Bell’s classic text, Race, Racism and American Law (with Justin Hansford).

Selected Publications

Law Professors of Color and the Academy, 68 Chicago-Kent Law Review 331 (1992). Reprinted in Critical Race Feminism (edited by A.
Book Review, Bell’s Blues, 60 University of Chicago Law Review 783-93 (1993).
Myths of Race and Gender in the Trials of O.J.
Book Review, Mining in Hard Ground, 116 Harvard Law Review 2487-2539 (2003).
The Story of Plessy v.
Whitewashing Race: Scapegoating Culture, 94 California Law Review 907-943 (2006).
Reviewing Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society, by Michael K.
Ricci v.

Personal Life

Harris was married to activist Keorapetse Kgositsile, together having rapper Earl Sweatshirt.

Impact and Influence

Cheryl I. Harris has had a profound impact on legal scholarship and the development of critical race theory. Her work has challenged conventional understandings of race, law, and power, and has inspired countless scholars and activists. Her concept of "whiteness as property" has become a cornerstone of critical race theory, providing a powerful framework for understanding how racial inequality is embedded in legal and social structures. Harris's contributions have been instrumental in shaping contemporary discussions about race, justice, and equality in the United States and beyond.

Her scholarship has also influenced discussions on the intersection of race, gender, and class. By examining the experiences of those who have navigated racial boundaries and the ways in which race intersects with economic status, Harris has provided valuable insights into the complexities of identity and inequality.

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