Problematic people are everywhere. And the archetypical professors my friends and I had last term are not absolved from this article in some of their actions. Still, I did not want anyone to think that the T14 is peace on earth for those in the minority. In fact, it is a metaphysical war zone.
So here are two archetypes of extremely problematic professors one can encounter in the T14.
Professor Debbie Krat
Poor Debbie. She really tried.
Or did she? Professor Krat is the kind of professor that most liberal students may be excited to have while the conservative ones groan. She wrote that one book a few people wrote about in their applications. The syllabus looks amazing. She may be younger. She is often actually a she. And even the people of color in her class are ready to see what Debbie has to say. But then class starts. How much does she pain me? Let me count the ways.
First, she drowns you in her “expertise.” She spins every student’s comment on the material to be about her research. And she not only likes her work, she is “in love” with telling stories of communities suffering that she cannot identify with. At first, you may feel that this is fine given that it is her expertise. But then you realize her passion is borderline fetishistic and uncomfortable to continuously hear about. You wonder does she actually walk the walk or just talks the talk?
Which leads me to the second issue: She intellectualizes everything, even when on the fringes of her expertise. This gets especially dangerous when the subject is about people with the very immutable characteristics that she is pontificating about. When the subject turns to your own background, you feel as if you are at a zoo for suffering humans. Not only are you on display, but every issue and action of your people can be explained in an eerily neocolonial way. You may try to correct her on not being so broad stroke or that she is leaving out a specific intersectional group. But be prepared to be hit by the “Well of course, and actually . . .” speech.
But maybe this would all be okay if the discussion was not so superficial and unstructured. Yet the third issue is that she intellectualizes the blatantly problematic opinions that need to be educated in the room. Given that many people in the T14 lived very homogeneous, sheltered, privileged lives, discussions on certain identities should be handled carefully in classes where marginalized students are forced to share and take a class with people who frankly would not have cared to have these discussions in the first place. Instead, factually incorrect or overtly biased assumptions about otherized bodies go unchecked by Professor Krat, who puts the onus on other students to respond only briefly. Moreover, problematic “opinions” in our class and in our readings are validated by Professor Krat simply because “other people share those views.”
Do not get me wrong, some of my best friends have problematic views. But most of these in Professor Krat’s discussions are akin to debating “is racism sometimes good?” No Debbie, it’s not.
Professor G. Opey
She is taking the road less traveled by, yet it has made no difference.
Professor Opey tries to tread more cautiously than Professor Krat. She knows these T14 schools are loaded with people who think they are liberal but actually just do not care enough to have a more polarizing stance. So, you go a week almost more excited to attend her class than Professor Krat’s. Professor Opey is not trying to have any conversation outside of her expertise, which obviously has nothing to do with researching your demographic. You are less on edge. But then everything changed when she got comfortable.
It is as if she read her reviews the day before school started and then forgot all about them on week three.
Suddenly, Opey got jokes? But the joke is you. Hearing someone you know does not share your political views on how to address issues with your demographic make light of current situations of your group without even opening the room for others to respond is a cruel form of power over us. But she is not done yet. Where Professor Krat gave you that patronizing “of course” to your concerns, Professor Opey cannot be wrong. There is always an unassigned case, a historical archive, or just a “trust me, in my well researched opinion” to respond your concern that this reading or this whole class is a dangerously one-sided view of the law.
That may be okay too, if she did not talk about her course like she was at church. Her readings have problematic undertones (that admittedly may be better left untouched given Professor Krat), yet Professor Opey treats the material as if white men are God’s gift to the world and nothing has gone wrong ever since.
But so far, I have said nothing too unexpected about people like Professor Opey. I knew I would have more conservative professors. I knew I would have problematic professors. But I was not ready to feel doubly marginalized in a class. Because now, you are not only the minority in the room, you are the minority who must give way to the other, often still privileged, “minority” in the room: Conservatives who are happy to have a class with Professor Opey.
After fighting to not have my existence devalued, fetishized, and stereotyped in Professor Krat’s class on day one, I could not help but notice that Professor Opey seemed to know all the conservative students already on day one. Perhaps I am looking too hard, but I cannot help but sense a deference to hearing their thoughts in class. And my multiple attempts to speak with this professor one on one, or even four on one, have been shirked by these conservatives hogging her time after class and in office hours. And she has not shown the slightest care to make time for us or seek us out. And she will go even further to avoid calling on you when she senses you may very well derail the class.
Ironically, I still like my classes. But I hope this shows that the problematic aspects of this school know no party. I and others are at war for existence as unique human beings in our class who are not meant to be commodified or ignored. And to be honest, the professors who purport to be allies have done the most damage to students with marginalized backgrounds. I can only pray it gets better. They have so far made me feel powerless.
Earl Grey (not his real name) is currently a 1L at a T14 law school. You can reach him by email at HotTeaForEveryone@gmail.com.
Tales From An Unsuspecting T14 1L: Problematic Professors curated from Above the Law
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