Interest convergence

Brown v Board of Education The idea of interest convergence came to Bell after considering Supreme Court decisions involving racial matters. Many of these cases were argued on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment states “[n]o State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court confirmed the “separate but equal doctrine”, stating that racially segregated facilities were not illegal, providing the facilities were equal for both Black and white people. Scholars argue that this decision allowed policymakers to create rules that discriminated against Black students. The landmark decision of Brown v Board of Education overturned Plessy. The Supreme Court held that segregated schools violated the 14th amendment and injured Black children. The change in approach by the Supreme Court led Bell to question their reasoning. Response to Brown v Board of Education The response to the decision was mixed. Many white people were horrified by the decision, describing the day the decision was handed down as a “Black Monday”. The Black community and its allies viewed the decision as the “crown jewel of US Supreme Court jurisprudence”. She also discovered secret cables to the Justice Department outlining the United States’ interest in “improving its images in the eyes of the Third World”. The treatment of the “Little Rock Nine” is an example of this. Studies done on schooling after the Brown decision show that many Black educators were fired and many Black students had to attend schools where they were “subjected to physical violence and emotional abuse, racial intimidation and hostility and illegal suspensions”. == Principles ==

Limited Success Because decisions made through interest convergence aren’t made specifically to benefit minority groups, adherents question the success of the results of these decisions. According to Harvard Law Review, Brown’s failure is because the decision was never really made to benefit Black people. Interest convergence asserts that even if the interests of Black people are in theory protected by the 14th Amendment, that alone will not suffice to achieve justice if doing so will threaten the status of whites. On one side, political and legal achievements for Black people would only occur where they coincided with those of white people, and on the other hand, these achievements will be taken away if they threaten the interests of whites. Scholars This report also showed that the schools white students attend tend to receive vastly better resources that give white students educational advantages over other students who attend schools where the resources and standard of education is seriously lacking. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, came about as a result of grassroots efforts that demanded social change from political leaders. Theorists analysed the reasoning of the judges in these decisions and argued that decisions are most likely to be successful when the court focuses on the benefits affirmative action would have for academic institutions instead of the benefits it would have on Black students. Theorists acknowledged that the decision was not as appreciated by ordinary Latinex people as it was by legal scholars. In this case the court found that Mexicans were a “distinct” and “segregated” group, and that systematic exclusion of Mexicans from the jury was unconstitutional. They argue that the Reagan Administration was implementing pro-Japan trade policies, yet feared that the treatment of Japanese people by America would hinder effective economic relations. == Influence ==

The study of interest convergence began in the area of education, but today scholars use it to study immigration, criminal justice, and affirmative action. Immigration Critical theorists have used interest convergence to study US immigration policy. Scholars argue that US laws have excluded various groups from entering the country based on race or nationality from the late 1800s. These restrictions include the Chinese exclusion laws of the 1880s One of the areas they consider is Mexican immigration. In their view, times when Mexicans were permitted to enter into the US coincided with the needs of the US labour market. With Asian immigrants, it is argued that Chinese Exclusion laws were abolished to keep the Chinese as an ally during World War 2. Criminal Justice Interest convergence is also used within the realm of criminal justice. Critical race theorists argue that mass incarceration, police violence, and mandatory sentences have disproportionate negative effects on people of colour. Similarly, campaigners trying to abolish the death penalty proved to be more successful when they framed it as an economic issue, rather than a racial justice one. Affirmative Action Affirmative action is a highly contentious issue in the US that has received significant backlash in recent years. Theorists argue that any progress made regarding affirmative action involves the hope that it will benefit white people. They doubt the efficacy of affirmative action for minority groups, considering it was “created neither by them or for them”, but for the benefits that restoring social order and alleviating racial tensions would have for white people. With this view, discussions about the positives of affirmative action revolve around the benefits that introducing students of colour into academic institutions would have on white students. == Critiques ==

Many people strongly criticise the theory. One criticism is the lack of agency the theory affords to Black people, or people who have fought to achieve justice. This group argues that Bell’s theory characterises Black people as completely inoperative in their fight for justice, despite significant involvement in campaigning, advocacy and protests. Thinkers in this field also disagree with the lack of compliment interest convergence would give to Black success. They argue that interest convergence takes away Black success by attributing it to a converging white interest. Additionally, supporters of this view argue that interest convergence minimises the actions of white judges who used their role to reject racism. Another critique views the theory’s usage of “black interests” and “white interests” as overly simplistic and not acknowledging the complexities of racial justice. In their view, there is no singular “black interest”, therefore decisions based on interest convergence may benefit some Black people, but not all. The theory is also criticised because it doesn’t acknowledge that decisions could be made in a racially egalitarian way. Critics argue that virtually every decision could affirm the existence of interest convergence if scrutinised heavily. Some people use interest convergence as a tool to make progress in today’s world. These people believe that interest convergence can be used to fight racial inequality by creating “multiracial coalitions”. Cashin argues that it is unremarkable that groups of people act in their favour, even if it is to the detriment of others, and therefore, common interests should be used as a way to advance change. == Subfields ==

Some supporters have taken interest convergence outside the realm of race and have applied it to animal welfare. Animal advocates are using health concerns surrounding meat eating, such as cancer and antibiotics in livestock, as a way to encourage people to stop eating meat. == References ==