It’s repeated ad infinitum and it goes like this:
HLS alum: Where’d you go to law school?
Yale Law alum: In Connecticut, what about you?
HLS alum: Near Boston.
Five minutes later…
HLS alum: By Connecticut, do you mean Yale?
Yale Law alum: Yeah.
Five minutes later…
Yale Law alum: Do you know so-and-so from BC?
HLS alum: Naw, I went to Harvard.
Why do we engage is this awkward little dance?
**
Oh, and to you gumshoes out there, one of the Yale Law alums with whom
I’ve had this conversation is looking through some public documents
that relate to Alito’s position on this 1985 case, Tennessee v. Garner,
which held that police may not use deadly force in stopping a fleeing
felon unless there is reason to believe that the individual threatens
the life of officers and the others. Alito drafted a memo for the
Soliciter General’s office, urging them to file an amicus brief on
behalf of Tenneesee, that advocated the use of deadly force even if the
officer had no reason to believe that the individual posed any danger
to others. The pre-Garner rule was a bit troubling, because
officers tended to shoot at black and white fleeing suspects at equal
percentages when they had a reasonable belief of danger to their lives
or to the lives of others, but when they had no reason to believe the
fleeing suspect was dangerous, they shot 12 black suspects or every 1
white suspect. I haven’t seen this story in the news yet, and I
think that Alito’s memo would make a very good non-Roe story. (I can
hear Reverend Sharpton’s soundbite now, “Alito said it’s okay for the
police to shoot unarmed Black people.”)
Edit: Also, I remember the discussion of Garner in my Crim law class. Professor Randall Kennedy
asked, “If you’re a Black man in America, and you haven’t done anything
wrong, and you see a cop, isn’t running away a pretty logical response?”
Here’s an older Scalito post.
You do the dance because otherwise, it often goes like this:A: Where did you go to college?
B: MIT
A: OHH! Wow.
*B looks around uncomfortably*
A: So, what was that like? How did you like it?
B: I liked it. It was nice.
dagnabbit I wish your comment code would auto-linebreak. :
The sidestepping in that conversation makes for a brilliant dance.
And that is a very interesting find on Alito. I’ve recently developed a huge interest in criminal procedure. We’ll see if that lasts after the final.
TK, you got your breaks, happy?
Also, the nice thing about MIT is that it at least doesn’t trigger NEGATIVE stereotypes (arrogant, etc) that Harvard and Yale sometimes might.
I hate that dance. I don’t mean to be a jerk about it, but I think it’s based in a combination of unconfidence and that great upper-class American “class-blindness.”
Unconfidence: I was with a friend who got a Fulbright and again and again, she was asked, “So what are you doing now that you’ve graduated?” Her stock response was, “I’m going to go overseas for a while.” I spoke up for her and told them what she was doing. After I did that a few times, I think it sank in for her and she started standing straigher and accepting that, hey, maybe I am a hot shit. I mean, she — like you, with your Harvard Law background — worked very hard and tried very hard to get the special fellowship/degree. You might as well stand straight and be proud of what you’ve done. I have had the same sort of process with some jobs that sound like a big deal. But at some point you just say, hey, I worked hard to get the job, I might as well tell them I have it. If they can’t deal with that, it’s not my problem.
Class-blindness: I hope I’m not being presumptuous here. I know this comment sounds mean, and I don’t mean it personally. I know that it’s just a culture, not a specific personality trait of yours. Powerful Americans often pretend they’re not so powerful. It’s partly a very important effort to keep it real with your homies. But it’s also a much less admirable effort to have power without having responsibility. Once someone knows you’re rich, powerful, or otherwise elite (and Harvard Law is inherently elite, at least compared to, say, a Bachelors in Social Work from Wayne State), they might have tough questions, they might want something from you, they might even vent a little based on their own class prejudice. You do have power, even if you consciously avoid taking advantage of it. A few annoyances from those who either envy you or want something from you are not the most dreadful price to pay.
So if someone asks where you went to law school, try saying, without any pretension or condescension, “Harvard.” I bet it will simplify everything.
Someone: what school did you go to?
Me: hopkins.
Someone: oh… you didn’t get into harvard eh?
In my defense, I usually do answer, “Harvard,” now. I was just caught off-guard because she said, “Connecticut,” first.
You know what I just realized? Your Harvard/Yale conversation is even more amusing if I imagine that you’re tangoing as you have it.
Also, what does it say about your readers that we’re all jumping to comment on the trials and tribulations of being an Ivy League graduate… but none of us have commented on the racial injustice half of your post? : In my defense, I simply don’t have anything particularly interesting to say about it, other than: That sucks, and I wonder what Alito’s argument in his memo was.
A real comment, in response to your Kennedy quote: Last time I was at jury duty, that’s exactly what a couple of the black potential jurors said: “Frankly, when I see a cop, I walk the other way.” And so of course they got dismissed by the prosecutor, and the public defender objected, ad infinitum. Wonderful society we live in.
YOU: “In my defense, I usually do answer, “Harvard,” now. I was just caught off-guard because she said, “Connecticut,” first.”Yeah, I was going to say something about that — you were pretty straightforward about Harvard when I asked you, although I think you did hesitate a moment and think about how to put it when I asked you if you ever lived outside the Bay Area. Anyway, I feel kind of dumb, after saying to be loud and proud, not to sign my post with my real name. Well, you know me. And as for the future search engines of the world, well, sorry. Not today.About Alito: The guy seems to have made a career out of attempting to turn back the clock to some mythical golden age of white male supremacy. And now the U.S. Senate, of all ridiculous institutions, must confirm. Sounds like he was angling his whole life for this moment.
About the dance:
You do it that way because if you answer straight, you get accused of bragging or condescension. I’ve tried saying it straight, and you get “Oooh, Haahvaahd” in some sort of strange quasi-British accent. Plus, it keeps people from getting to know you for who you are, not where you went to school. I actually just last night got such positive feedback for NOT bringing it up, that I think I will stick with it.
Was going to comment on Garner, but had way to much to say, not enough space to say it in, and ironically, need to study for Crim tonight.
Re the dance: My favorite reaction of all time is the dead silence that follows my friend’s announcement that he’s getting (now gotten) a PhD in Astrophysics from CalTech. Followed closely by the guy who left the bar when a girlfriend of mine finished telling him she’s getting a PhD from Berkeley in Microbiology. I don’t think going to HLS is anywhere near as bad!
Re Alito: Be very, very scared.