Randall Kennedy © RED-C.J. Gunther-SIPA

LAW PROFESSOR

United States

Biography

Randall L. Kennedy, born September 10, 1954 in Columbia, South Carolina is an American Law professor and author at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law and focuses his research on the intersection of racial conflict and legal institutions in American
life. He supervises written work and accepts press inquiries regarding the topics of contracts, freedom of expression, race relations law, civil rights legislation and the Supreme Court. Through numerous appearances on the lecture circuit, Kennedy continues to promote debate on hot-button racial issues in the public arena. "If you are socially isolated" he told Regan Goode
in The New York Times, "you are more vulnerable to stereotypes and myths, you won’t have the opportunity to have conversations with someone who has a different social background than you." While many critics have attempted to use Kennedy’s work to advance their own agendas, he has retained his academic independence. " Against black pessimists" wrote Galston and Wasserman, Kennedy argues that substantial progress has been made toward the ideal of color-blind justice. Against complacent whites, he argues that there is still a long way to go." The relationship between white and black America, Kennedy noted, remains one of America’s most perplexing problems." Obviously there are all sorts of ethnic, racial conflicts in American society,"
Kennedy told Smith, "but there’s one that is deeper than all the others and that’s white/black racial conflict." Kennedy currently serves as a Trustee of Princeton University. 

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