Summary of Legal Storytelling and Narrative Analysis
Summary of Legal Storytelling and Narrative Analysis
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Summary of Legal Storytelling and Narrative Analysis
The chapter comprehensively retails how powerful and persuasive storytelling and narrative analysis have on showcasing racial inequalities in schools. It argues that storytelling is critical in helping people unlearn the negative racial stereotypes, inequalities, as well as classism in learning institutions. The chapter provides a remarkable explanation regarding how Americans depict race. Different critical race theorists utilize everyday experiences, viewpoints. Along with the power of stories to help readers understand the perception of race among Americans. In this regard, they have produced various literature, such as parables, pamphlets, as well as “counterstories.” This chapter provides insightful and educative information relevant to sociology by detailing the effort of critical race theorists or scholars in unmasking the perception of white supremacy.
The chapter argues that legal storytellers have been essential in highlighting the experiences non-white people undergo. Critical race theorists and legal storytellers embrace the interactionist perspective to describe racism as a social problem entrenched in different social institutions (Stefancic & Delgado, 2010). In this way, legal storytellers assign that the behavior for whites to discriminate against people of color racially is influenced by various factors, such as the notion that race is a social construct and the perception that racism is ordinary. Essentially, white supremacy has been predicated upon how whites label the people of color as minorities. Thus, labeling other people as minorities makes whites have a dominant view of themselves.
Today, significant steps can be distinguished in the fight against racial discrimination. The various literature written by legal storytellers and other theorists has been crucial in eliminating the vestiges of racial prejudices (Stefancic & Delgado, 2010). For instance, the civil rights of the minorities are stipulated by the US Constitution, and those who breach them can be sued. Black Lives Matter is a movement that has been vocal in voicing the plights of the people of color in America. An example is when Chauvin, white police in 2020, killed George Floyd. Blacks protested the heinous killing of George Floyd, and the perpetrators were apprehended and sentenced in court. The overarching message that legal storytellers seek to champion is inclusivity, diversity, and coexistence. As s result, they emphasize the functionalist perspective by encouraging the need to cooperate and realize a state of balance in society. In this perspective, family values, education, knowledge, as well as culture are perceived as functional when they promote social stability or dysfunctionality.
Conclusion
In this chapter, the main themes include promoting moral bonds and social stability. Legal storytellers have been insightful by writing various literature that helps judges make informed decisions on racial discrimination cases. The crop of current storytellers is black since they understand the hardships the people of color experience. Consequently, they use their writing skills to create awareness regarding the menace of racial discrimination. The chapter is critically vital to sociology in different ways. One way is that it emphasizes the functionalist perspective advocated for by scholars through legal storytelling and narrative theories. Also, the chapter highlights the interactionist perspective by explaining the influence of social institutions on racism.
References
Stefancic, J., & Delgado, R. (2010). Critical Race Theory: An Introduction.
