Guinier Issues Call For Social Justice

Emphasizing the role of minority views in a modern democracy, Professor of Law Lani Guinier '71 discussed her philosophy of social justice in the second half of a two-part speech yesterday afternoon in Sanders Theatre.

Guinier, who was the black woman to receive tenure in the history of Harvard Law School, said it is crucial for all opposing views to be included in society if true social justice is to occur. Present social structures, by emphasizing the majority and excluding "outsiders," fail to "build a multi-racial society," she said.

Only a "broad coalition" and collaboration between different elements of society would result in an improvement of justice for everyone, she said.

"We need to take from the margin to rethink the whole," Guinier said. Universal justice could be achieved not by the "power of the majority" but by "acknowledging dissent...so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," she said.

Guinier, who addressed an audience of about 400, presented her experience working on voting issues in Washington in the early '80s as an instance when collaboration between opposing interests resulted in an effective compromise.

Collaborative approaches are more "appropriate to a heterogenous and changing society," she said.

Guinier described more specific ways of implementing her philosophy in a response to an audience member who argued that American democracy already accurately reflects the opinions of society.

In reply, Guinier criticized the "winner-take-all" method of the current voting system. This method "encourages a passive relationship...between representatives and the people," since not all views are included, she said.

Guinier advocated a system of proportional representation, which she stated was used by "most other democracies" with the exception of the former British colonies.

She declined to respond to the audience member's accusation that her philosophy was "racial-centric," a comment that drew murmurs of disagreement from the crowd.

Guinier became a national name when President Clinton, a classmate from Yale Law School, nominated her to be an Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in 1993. She was immediately attacked by conservatives, who claimed that her writings on voting issues supported racial quotas. Clinton later withdrew his nomination.