Professor Renee Nicole Allen’s article, Hell Hath No Fury Like A White Man Scorned, is now forthcoming in the Boston University Law Review. Here’s the abstract:

On July 2, 2024, Faculty, Alumni, & Students Opposed to Racial Preferences filed a lawsuit against Northwestern Pritzker School of Law alleging that Northwestern discriminates on the basis of race and gender in a way that disfavors White male applicants in the faculty hiring process. The lawsuit alleged illegal racial discrimination in hiring practices which favored Black candidates who the complaint alleges are less qualified than White, male candidates. More accurately characterized as a racist manifesto, the complaint engages in racial targeting of current and former Black faculty members who are identified by name while concealing the names of potential White, male applicants. Rooted in anti-Blackness, it epitomizes the White gaze in action in the law school White space.

This Article examines the racist ideologies that underpin FASORP’s complaint, elucidates the consequences of dismantling affirmative action, and highlights the immediate chilling effect it will have on law faculty hiring and the production of critical scholarship. First, it examines the racism and racial resentment embodied by the Supreme Court’s SFFA v. Harvard decision which now serves as the legal justification for so-called reverse racism litigation by groups like FASORP. Next, it highlights the ways Whiteness and the myth of meritocracy engender a sense of entitlement in the legal academy. Then, it analyzes the anti-Blackness exhibited through the White gaze in the complaint. Finally, without addressing the merits of the lawsuit, this Article concludes by identifying the immediate consequences of the complaint.