In reality, though, many of the innovations of the digital economy have been propped up by an underpaid, underappreciated, and an unacknowledged class of people who Mary L. Gray and Siddharth Suri describe as “ghost workers” in their book Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019).

On Thursday, July 9, at 12:30 p.m., Fordham’s McGannon Center will host a webinar with the authors to discuss these largely unknown members of the global workforce.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature Gray and Suri explaining how they used extensive interviews and data analytics to show that this often unsupported workforce is essential to such things as geolocation, online payment systems, and content moderation, as well as fixing glitches and gaps in everyday systems we all rely on.

Olivier Sylvain, the director of the McGannon Center and a professor at Fordham’s School of Law, said their findings are especially relevant to contemporary concerns such as Facebook employees’ pushback against the company’s laissez-faire approach to misinformation and work stoppage efforts at Amazon in light of concerns about COVID-19.

“It isn’t just about the people who power Amazon Mechanical Turk, or the gig workers who drive Uber cars. It’s also about laborers in Southeast Asia who are finding the parts that go into the Amazon Echo, and it’s about the content moderators in India who are reviewing traumatic images of child abuse so that we never have to see them when we open our News Feed,” he said.

Sylvain said he’s most interested in hearing Gray and Suri talk about the ways that companies keep these workers’ stories out of the public eye, not so much by denying their existence as by touting the miracles of artificial intelligence.

“When Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress in 2018, and people were worried about the manipulations of elections, his answer was, ‘We’re going to have AI solve this and make sure we don’t have disinformation on Facebook.’”

“That is laudable, and I hope that it works, but it is incomplete. The managers that run these companies and the labor they hire are just as important, if not more important, in deciding how the systems work. I don’t think they’re trying to block the information; I think there’s just a mismatch in the words they ascribe to the technology and services, and what’s actually going on.”

After Sarah Roberts, Ph.D., an assistant professor of information studies at UCLA, and Lilly Irani, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication, science studies, computer science, and critical gender studies at the University of California San Diego, share their reactions to the book’s findings, the day’s session will shift to the work that Kimani Paul-Emile and Sam Roberts, Ph.D., associate professor of history and of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University, have done in the health care industry.

Paul-Emile, a professor of law and associate director of Fordham Law School’s Center on Race, Law, and Justice, has spent years studying how race and inequality affect health care workers, a group whose challenges have only been heightened since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nurses and nursing assistants often provide behind the scenes care to patients, but don’t always enjoy the types of workplace protections as other workers, said Paul-Emile.

“It’s been an open secret in medicine that some patients reject their healthcare provider based on race, religion, or ethnicity, said Paul-Emile. “While this biased patient conduct is disproportionately directed toward Black providers, in the age of Covid, there have been increasing numbers of patients saying, ‘I don’t want that Asian nurse,’ due to bias and unfounded fears of contracting the coronavirus.”

Paul-Emile explained that patients have the right to refuse treatment.

“But the health care worker also has employment rights that need to be respected. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects employees from discrimination on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, or religion. So when these instances occur, it can be really difficult to discern what to do,” she said.

There’s also the fact that COVID-19 has sickened people of color and the poor at higher rates than other demographics.

“Initially there was discussion about whether there was something biological or genetic that predisposed these groups to be particularly vulnerable to the virus, but it quickly became clear that the disparities stemmed from how our society is structured. Many people in these communities are the first responders who are put in positions where they’re more likely to be infected by the coronavirus,” Paul-Emile said.

“That’s opened the door to very important conversations about structural inequality and race.”

The articles, films, academic papers, podcasts, and interviews listed below are for anyone interested in learning about the Black Lives Matter Movement, racial inequality and racialized violence, and communal responses toward action and healing.

Self-Care

How Black Americans can practice self-care… And how everyone else can help, Elizabeth Wellington, 2020
4 Self-Care Resources for Days When the World is Terrible, Miriam Zoila Pérez, 2020

Demonstrating Care for Black People

Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not, Danielle Cadet, Refinery 29, 2020
Before You Check In On Your Black Friend, Read This, Elizabeth Gulino, Refinery 29, 2020

Articles

Around the world, the U.S. has long been a symbol of anti-Black racism, Nana Osei-Opare, The Washington Post, 2020
NYPD at the Crossroads: Some Background History, Mark Naison, The Gotham Center for New York City History, 2020
Racism Won’t be Solved by Yet Another Blue Ribbon-Report, Adam Harris, The Atlantic, 2020
The assumptions of white privilege and what we can do about it, Bryan N. Massingale, National Catholic Reporter, 2020
The NFL Is Suddenly Worried About Black Lives, Jemele Hill, The Atlantic, 2020
Performative Allyship is Deadly (Here’s What to Do Instead), Holiday Phillips, Forge – Medium, 2020
A Look Back At Trayvon Martin’s Death, And the Movement it Inspired, Karen Grigsby Bates, Code Switch – NPR, 2018
Blackness as Disability? Kimani Paul-Emile, Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History, 2018
The Intersection of Policing and Race, Danyelle Soloman, American Progress, 2016
The Cost of Balancing Academia and Racism, Adrienne Green, The Atlantic, 2016
The Politics of ‘Looting’ and ‘Violence’, Eric Draitser, CounterPunch, 2015
“The White Space,” Elijah Anderson, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 1(1), 10-21

Books

How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi, (One World/Ballantine, 2019)
Multiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination, Tanya K Hernández, (NYU Press, 2018)
So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo, (Seal Press, 2018)
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, (Canongate Books, 2018)
The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism, & Religious Diversity in America, Jeannine Hill-Fletcher, (Orbis Books, 2017)
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, Andrea Ritchie, (Beacon Press, 2017)
Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond, Marc Lamont Hill and Todd Brewster, (Simon and Schuster, 2016)
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates, (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)
Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, Bryan Massingale, (Orbis Books, 2014)
Citizen: an American Lyric, Claudia Rankine, (Graywolf Press, 2014)
Savage Portrayals: Race, Media, and the Central Park Jogger Story, Natalie Byfield, (Temple University Press, 2014)
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do, Claude Steele, (WW Norton & Company, 2011)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander, (The New Press, 2010)
Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School, Mika Pollock, (The New Press, 2008)
Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006)

Multimedia: Documentaries and Conversations

The Bronx COVID-19 Oral History Project Fordham University. Carlos Rico, Veronica Quiroga, and Bethany Fernandez.
13th (2016) [Film]. Netflix. Duvernay, A. (Streaming for free)
Just Mercy (2019) [Film]. Warner Bros. Cretton, D. D. (Streaming for free)
Black vs. White: Protesting & Riots (2020) [Interview] Christina Greer & Jason Johnson
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on How Racism & Racial Terrorism Fueled Nationwide Anger (2020)[Interview] DemocracyNow!
Decade of Fire (2019) [Film]. GoodDocs. Hilderbran, G., Vazquez, V.
When They See Us (2019) [TV Mini-series]. Netflix. Duvernay, A.
Angela Davis – “Freedom is a Constant Struggle” (2019) [Lecture] The University of New England
Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses ‘White Fragility’ (2018) [Book Talk] Seattle Central Library
The Urgency of Intersectionality (2016) Kimberlé Crenshaw, TED
The Black Power Mixtape (2011) [Film] PBS Independent Lens. Göran Olsson
Color Blind or Color Brave (2014) Mellody Hobson, TED.
The Power of Vulnerability (2010) Brené Brown, TED.
Intersectionality Matters [Podcast] Kimberlé Crenshaw
Code Switch [Podcast] NPR
Pod Save the People [Podcast] Deray McKesson

Get Involved

The Bronx Freedom Fund
#8cantwait
8toAbolition

Additional Resources

Jesuit Resources on Racism: Ignatian Solidarity Network – Racial Justice

Panelists shared their considerable insights into how neuroscience is reshaping actions police, lawyers, and judges take when interacting with individuals suffering serious mental health disorders, how neuroscience is reconfiguring the law’s approach to concussion and malingering, and other groundbreaking research occurring in the field.

In her welcome remarks, Neuroscience and Law Center Founding Director Deborah W. Denno told conference participants that the event epitomized the rapid development of the shared pursuits of legal and medical professionals to create a more just criminal justice system, and the center’s unique position as a hub for scholars, researchers, practicing lawyers, and judges. Notably, the center is home to the most comprehensive legal database of its kind on neuroscience use in the courtroom.

“Fordham’s Neuroscience and Law Center takes an interdisciplinary and evidence-based approach to studying how neuroscience is being used in the legal system and the real world to assess its impact on current decision-making, as well as to anticipate how this information should be used in the future,” Denno explained. In the near future, the center intends to expand its research into how neuroscience intersects and impacts with civil and corporate law, she noted.

Denno later outlined her research on 800 criminal cases that have addressed neuroscience evidence over a two-decade period during the day’s second panel, “Creating Groundbreaking Research on Neuroscience and Law.” Moderated by Fordham Law Professor Bruce Green, the panel also featured the insights of the Hon. Bernice B. Donald of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit who discussed implicit bias in the criminal justice system. In addition, Arielle Baskin-Sommers presented her latest research on psychopathy and Tom Tyler discussed the implications of adolescent brain development for both the criminal justice system and for schools. Baskin-Sommers and Tyler are both in the Department of Psychology at Yale University.

The opening panel featured presentations by New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner Susan Herman, both of whom detailed how their respective agencies are responding to the needs of individuals with mental illness. Fordham Law Professor James Kainen moderated the panel.

Vance noted that 56 percent of state prisoners nationwide and 60 percent of jail inmates have some mental health problem, adding that often the criminal justice system sends these people to prison without “being responsible enough” to pay for their mental health support in prison, to ensure an increased likelihood of success when they are released.

“Mental illness is a big problem in terms of bringing people into our system, and if we want healthy communities and healthy families, we’re going to have to invest money at the local level,” Vance said, emphasizing that local investment is particularly important in 2018 because the federal government is pulling back its support for these programs.

To this end, the New York County District Attorney’s Office is investing $250 million over the next five years into crime prevention strategies, including youth hubs that will provide services to neighborhoods that those neighborhoods specifically requested. Neighborhood residents will provide the services, Vance added.

The New York Police Department is opening new community health diversion centers in Manhattan and the Bronx this year, Herman shared, to provide support for individuals with mental illness. A police officer must accompany the individual—who has either committed a low-level violation or police believe has a mental health or substance abuse problem—to the diversion center, Herman said.

Neuroscience will eventually be used to predict future violent behavior and recidivism—predictions that could lead down a slippery slope, said Leah G. Pope, director of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Substance Use and Mental Health Program, during comments made during the first panel. On the other hand, neuroscience could also provide “great value” in shedding light on the impact conditions of confinement have on the brain and also rehabilitation possibilities for individuals with serious mental illnesses, Pope continued.

The conference concluded with afternoon panels on “The Challenge of Malingering: Symptoms Real, Imagined, and Pretended,” moderated by Fordham Law Professor Kimani Paul-Emile, and “Reconceptualizing Concussion in Law: The Increasing Influence of Neuroscience,” moderated by Fordham Law Professor Clare Huntington.

—Ray Legendre

“Who are we not to take this on?” Lenhardt would ask rhetorically in response, pointing to the University’s commitment to social justice and the Law School’s deep and diverse constellation of race scholars.

On February 29, Lenhardt and Fordham Law School formally launched the Center on Race, Law and Justice, publicly announcing its presence as a leader on issues of race and the law in New York City, the United States, and abroad. The event featured presentations from five Fordham University professors involved in the center, including associate directors Tanya Hernandez and Kimani Paul-Emile, and a keynote address from preeminent civil rights lawyer Debo Adegbile, now a partner at WilmerHale in New York and the former acting president and director counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Law School Dean Matthew Diller called the center’s launch “a huge red-letter day for Fordham Law School and Fordham University.” He lauded the collaboration, mutual support, and excitement present in the 26 faculty members associated with the center’s focus.

Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham University, placed the center’s launch in historic context, noting it came more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the death of Abraham Lincoln, and the end of the Civil War, and around 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Further change, he said, would come from conversion of hearts and a movement in which “Fordham is engaged.”

“I see great hope here,” McShane told the audience.

Both Diller and McShane praised Lenhardt’s vision, for transforming a decade-long dream into a reality.

Diller celebrated Lenhardt as “a superb colleague, teacher, and friend who adds insight, value, poise, and grace to everything she touches.”

Father McShane, meanwhile, highlighted Lenhardt’s persistent and persuasive arguments in championing her visionary concept.

“In every way that counts, you are the person who brought this to fruition,” Father McShane said to Lenhardt, noting her meticulous nature and gift for hard work convinced him this would be not a center on paper but a center in action.

The center will function as an incubator and a platform for cutting-edge interdisciplinary scholarship on race, structural inequality, and racial justice tools grounded in critical analyses, comparative inquiry, and innovative methodologies, its leaders said.

The center will not only explore the deployment of the law as a solution for racial inequity but also seek to address through original research and analysis how it simultaneously functions as the architect of such inequality in ways that strip minorities of opportunity, dignity, and belonging, Lenhardt explained.

The center’s mission, she continued, is to explore issues of race and inequality in both the domestic and global contexts and to promote conversations about access, opportunity, and discrimination at Fordham University and in the legal profession more broadly.

Hernandez will lead the center’s global and comparative law programs and initiatives. Paul-Emile, meanwhile, will lead the center’s domestic programs and initiatives. Law Professor Olivier Sylvain, Political Science Professor Christina Greer, and Sociology Professor Clara Rodriguez also detailed their scholarship on race and racial justice during the 90-minute event.

Lenhardt also highlighted the presence of Gay McDougall, a MacArthur Foundation “Genius,” distinguished scholar-in-residence at the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice, and the wife of the late John Payton, former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the architect of the legal strategy that led to the Michigan affirmative action cases decided by the Supreme Court, on which Lenhardt worked.

Payton’s LDF protégé, Adegbile, shared his mentor’s impact on his career in a speech that combined insight into how civil rights progress is not unilateral but ebbs and flows and that often the cases that matter most directly affect the lives of young people.

At present, Adegbile represents Harvard College in a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of its admissions program, one that raises the same kinds of issues presented by the Michigan cases and the Bakke case before them. Adegbile shared his view that such challenges present the questions “who are we and who do we want to be.”

Progress happens as a result not of one person’s efforts but of an intergenerational fight for change, Adegbile said, noting he viewed the center’s launch and future work as a continuation of this idea.

“Whether you’re Thurgood Marshall or Constance Baker Motley, it doesn’t matter,” Adegbile said, referring to the first African-American Supreme Court justice and first woman to serve as Manhattan borough president. “There will always be another fight. There will always be something for the next generation to do.”

—Ray Legendre

Aditi Bagchi,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“ESPN Accused in Dish Case of Giving Comcast Better Terms,” Bloomberg, February 11

Tom Beaudoin, Ph.D.,

associate professor of practical theology, GRE,

“Woodford and the Quest for Meaning,” ABC Radio, February 16

Mary Bly, Ph.D.,

professor of English, A&S,

“How do Bestselling Novelists Court Cupid on Valentine’s Day?,” Washington Post, February 14

James Brudney,

professor of law, LAW,

“Nutter Seeks High Court’s OK to Impose His Terms on City Workers,” Philly.com, March 1

Charles C. Camosy, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Drone Warfare Faces Barrage of Moral Questions,” Catholic San Francisco, February 20

Colin M. Cathcart, M.F.A.,

associate professor of architecture, A&S,

“New York City Traffic Ranked the Worst Among the Nation: Study,” AM New York, February 6

Saul Cornell, Ph.D.,

The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, A&S,

“After Newtown: Guns in America,” WNET-TV, February 19

Carole Cox, Ph.D.,

professor of social service, GSS,

“Boomer Stress,” Norwich Bulletin, February 19

George Demacopoulos, Ph.D.,

associate professor of theology, A&S,

“Pope Resignation,” ABC, World News Now, February 28

Christopher Dietrich, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of history, A&S,

“Bad Precedent: Obama’s Drone Doctrine is Nixon’s Cambodia Doctrine (Dietrich),” Informed Comment, February 11

John Entelis, Ph.D.,

professor of political science, A&S,

“John Brennan,” BBC Radio, February 9

Howard Erichson,

professor of law, LAW,

“High-Stakes Trial Begins for 2010 Gulf Oil Spill,” Amarillo Globe-News, February 25

Laura Gonzalez, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of finance, BUS,

“Recortes al Presupuesto Podrían Afectar el Seguro Social y Medicare,” Mundo Fox, February 8

Albert Greco, Ph.D.,

professor of marketing, BUS,

“Why Would Anyone Want to Buy a Bookstore?,” Marketplace, February 25

Karen J. Greenberg, Ph.D.,

director of the Center on National Security, LAW,

“Alleged Sept. 11 Plotters in Court, but Lawyers Do the Talking,” National Public Radio, February 11

Stephen R. Grimm, Ph.D.,

associate professor of philosophy, A&S,

“Grants from Foundations and Corporations of More Than $100,000 in 2013,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 28

Tanya Hernandez, Ph.D.,
professor of law, LAW,

“Brazil’s Affirmative Action Law Offers a Huge Hand Up,” Christian Science Monitor, February 12

J. Patrick Hornbeck, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Vatican Conclave,” Huffington Post, March 4

Robert Hume, Ph.D.,

associate professor of political science, A&S,

“USA: Supreme Court Case Update – DOMA/Prop 8 Briefs Streaming In,” Gay Marriage Watch, February 28

Clare Huntington,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“Sunday Dialogue: How to Give Families a Path Out of Poverty,” The New York Times, February 9

Nicholas Johnson,

professor of law, LAW,

“Neil Heslin, Father of Newtown Victim, Testifies at Senate Assault Weapons Ban Hearing,”Huffington Post, February 27

Michael E. Lee, Ph.D.,

associate professor of theology, A&S,

“Tiempo: Watch this Week’s Show,” WABC 7, February 17

Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.,

professor of theology, A&S,

“Remembering Benedict — the Teacher, the Traditionalist,” The Saratogian, March 1

Dawn B. Lerman, Ph.D.,

director of the Center for Positive Marketing, marketing area chair, and professor of marketing, BUS,

“Study: Google, Facebook, Walmart Fill Consumer Needs,” Tech Investor News, February 12

Paul Levinson, Ph.D.,

professor of communication and media studies, A&S,

“Will Oscar Host Seth MacFarlane Be Asked Back? Probably Not,” Yahoo! News via Christian Science Monitor, February 26

Hector Lindo-Fuentes, Ph.D.,

professor of history and director of Latin American and Latino Studies, A&S,

“Escaping Gang Violence, Growing Number of Teens Cross Border,” WNYC, December 28

Timothy Malefyt, Ph.D.,

visiting associate professor of marketing, BUS,

“On TV, an Everyday Muslim as Everyday American,” The New York Times, February 8

Elizabeth Maresca,

clinical associate professor of law, LAW,

“Poll: 87 Percent Say Never OK to Cheat on Taxes,” KWQC, February 26

Carlos McCray, Ed.D.,

associate professor of education leadership, GRE,

“Cops Nab 5-Year-Old for Wearing Wrong Color Shoes to School,” Take Part, January 18

Micki McGee, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of sociology, A&S,

“Do Self-Help Books Work?,” Chicago Sun Times, February 21

Mark Naison, Ph.D.,

professor of African and African American Studies and history, and principal investigator of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP), A&S,

“Professor: Why Teach For America Can’t Recruit in my Classroom,” Washington Post, February 18

Costas Panagopoulos, Ph.D.,

associate professor of political science, A&S,

“Analysis: Obama to Republicans – Can We Just Move On?,” WHTC 1450, February 13

Kimani Paul-Emile,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“Some Patients Won’t See Nurses of Different Race,” Cleveland Plain Dealer via AP, February 22

Michael Peppard, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Big Man on Campus isn’t on Campus,” Commonweal, February 20

Francis Petit, Ed.D.,

associate dean and director of Executive Programs, BUS,

“Marissa Mayer Takes Flak for Gathering Her Troops,” E-Commerce Times, March 1

Rose Perez, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of social work, GSS,

“Education Segment,” Mundo Fox, January 21

Wullianallur “R.P.” Raghupathi, Ph.D.,

professor of information systems, BUS,

“¿Qué Tiene Silicon Valley para Producir ‘Frutos’ Como Steve Jobs?,” CNN, February 24

Joel Reidenberg, Ph.D.,

Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and professor of law and founding academic director of the Center on Law and Information Policy, LAW,

“Google App Store Policy Raises Privacy Concerns,” Reuters, February 14

Erick Rengifo-Minaya, Ph.D.,

associate professor of economics, BUS,

“Noticias MundoFOX 10PM Parte II,” Mundo Fox Noticias, February 8

Patrick J. Ryan, S.J.,

The Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, A&S,

“Pope Resignation,” WNBC, Sunday “Today in NY,” March 13

Susan Scafidi,

professor of law, LAW,

“Diamonds: How $60B Industry Thrives on Symbolism,” CBS This Morning, February 21

Christine Janssen-Selvadurai, Ph.D.,director of the entrepreneurship program at the Gabelli School of Business and co-director of both Fordham’s Center for Entrepreneurship and the Fordham Foundry, BUS,

“NYC Embraces Silicon Valley’s Appetite for Risk,” Crain’s New York Business, February 6

Ellen Silber, Ph.D.,

director of Mentoring Latinas, GSS,

“Mentoring Program Serves Young Latinas Aiming Higher in New York City,” Fox News Latino, February 25

Janet Sternberg, Ph.D.,assistant professor of communication and media studies, A&S,

“What are You Supposed to Do When You Have, Like, 106,926 Unread Emails?,” Huffington Post, February 25

Maureen A. Tilley, Ph.D.,professor of theology, A&S,

“Pope Resignation: Interview with Maureen Tilley of Fordham University,” WPIX, February 17

Terrence W. Tilley, Ph.D.,

Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology and chair of the department, A&S,

“As Conclave to Select New Pope Begins, English-Speaking Cardinals Lead Charge to Reform Vatican,” Daily News, March 4

Peter Vaughan, Ph.D.,dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, GSS,

“Ceremony Held for NASW Foundation Award Recipients,” Social Work Blog, February 28

More features in this issue:

People

In Focus: Faculty and Research

Back to Inside Fordham home page

Copyright © 2013, Fordham University.

Kimani Paul-Emile, an associate professor of law, excavates these issues in her research and brings to light some challenging truths.

In “Patient Racial Preferences and the Medical Culture of Accommodation” (UCLA Law Review, 2012), she addressed the case of hospital patients who demand that the doctor assigned to them be of a similar race or ethnicity.

Paul-Emile admitted that her first instinct was that an accommodation based on race was “reminiscent of the kinds of discrimination that led to the passage of various civil rights laws.”

“But the more I looked through empirical research with patients, it became clear that this is something that actually benefits some patients, and the law didn’t appear to offer much guidance on how to address this practice.”

The idea that a “culture of accommodation” is beneficial to patients was confirmed in a 2010 study undertaken by the University of Michigan Health System, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Rochester. For Paul-Emile, the question was whether existing law prohibits the practice—and if it doesn’t, should it?

“Title VII (of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), for example, which covers employment discrimination, would apply, so physicians could sue if they are taken off a case and wanted to stay, even if the patient didn’t want to work with them,” she said.

Paul-Emile said that the physician might very well win the case; and yet, the practice has been happening for years and not one physician has reportedly sued.

“Doctors are deciding among themselves to accommodate these requests and this is likely because they believe that patients do better when they have the doctor they want. But physicians are also self-interested. If something goes wrong, patients are more likely to sue if they don’t like the physician.”

The country has come a long way since the early 20th century, when black patients were deliberately denied anti-syphilis drugs in the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment, Paul-Emile said. Still, studies show that minorities get substandard care for pain relief, cancer, and many common treatable diseases.

“It seems as though respecting patients’ autonomy in this context could, ironically, work in a way that protects patients of color from ongoing physician bias, abuse, or discrimination—even though it might seem at first blush to be like any other form of discrimination,” she said.

In “The Regulation of Race in Science,” (George Washington Law Review, 2012), Paul-Emile acknowledges the importance of taking race into consideration when conducting research on human subjects, even though race is a social, and not a genetic, construct.

During the AIDS crisis, racial minorities were underrepresented in tests for drugs like AZT, so there was a push to include more minorities and women in studies. While that is a good thing, there is still a danger that researchers might “biologize” or “geneticize” race in the process.

“There’s a robust discussion about this among scholars in the natural and social sciences. What I think is missing, and what this article offers, are guidelines for how researchers can think about race in a way that’s productive,” she said.

The drug BiDil, for example, was approved by the FDA in 2005 for use by black Americans suffering from hypertension. Theories abounded as to why blacks suffer disproportionally from the disease. One theory posited that, during the Middle Passage, slaves were denied water, and those who found ways to keep more salt in their bodies retained water and survived, whereas those who didn’t, perished.

“When researchers really pushed, they found that BiDil didn’t work better or differently in blacks than in other groups, and that black Americans’ elevated hypertention levels were linked to diet and the fact that having dark skin in the United States subjected them to more social stresses and fewer social and economic resources than those with lighter skin color.”

In her newest research, Paul-Emile is looking at employment discrimination against the one in four Americans with a criminal record. Title VII forbids employment policies that summarily exclude individuals with a criminal record if such actions disproportionately affect minorities. Blacks and Latinos, who are more likely than whites to be arrested for low-level offenses, are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Therefore, blanket hiring prohibitions tend to have a disparate impact on them.

But it’s impossible for job seekers to know if they’ve been rejected for a discriminatory reason, since companies pre-screen applicants through privately maintained databases before candidates are even invited for an interview.

According to Paul-Emile, “The question, then, becomes how to ensure employment opportunities and encourage the reintegration of former offenders into a society where they face significant discrimination, while balancing their interests with those of employers and society at large?”

Rather than relying exclusively on Title VII to protect this population, Paul-Emile advocates importing norms and legal frameworks from the health law context, specifically the Americans with Disability Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

“This model, which focuses on the regulation of information technology, reducing social stigma, balancing costs, and fostering rehabilitation, may enable employers to make fair and effective hiring decisions, without engaging in invidious discrimination, or creating an underclass of individuals with criminal records,” Paul-Emile said.