The latest issue of Respect, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation’s (NJSBF) newsletter on issues of diversity and racial justice, and a resource for students, takes a look at cross-racial identifications, bias in social studies and the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that decided the question of who owns Oklahoma.
The article “More Than Meets the Eye in Cross-Racial IDs” explores how eyewitness testimony was long considered the best evidence in a criminal trial. Experts are learning that it’s not so reliable, especially when the witness and the suspect are of different races.
Another article, “Teaching Social Studies Without Bias,” examines how the material being taught in social studies class, and how educators go about teaching it, is currently a hot debate. Many scholars believe students aren’t getting a full and accurate picture of our nation’s history, and fear that slavery, in particular, is being misrepresented.
Lastly, the piece “Promises Made and Finally Kept in Oklahoma” looks at how a U.S. Supreme Court decision in July 2020, with a 5–4 vote, held the U.S. to at least one of the promises it made to Native American tribes.
The latest edition of Respect can be downloaded at njsbf.org, or individual articles can be printed out from Respect’s blog, The Rundown.