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Kiwi Camara

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Kiwi Alejandro Danao Camara is a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics at Stanford Law School. He studies corporate law, constitutional law, and private international law.

Background

Camara was born in Manila, Philippines. A year later, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and, after that, to Honolulu, Hawaii.

At 19, he earned his J.D., becoming Harvard Law School's youngest graduate on record. At 15, he earned his Bachelor of Science in computer science and mathematics from Hawaii Pacific University. At 11, his first research paper, on alternative treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, was published. He was then a student at the Punahou School.

While at Harvard he first received a John M. Olin Fellowship in Law and Economics. He held the Fellowship until September 2004 when went to serve as a law clerk to Judge Harris Hartz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He enjoys ballroom dancing and competed as a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Ballroom Dance Team. In 2002 and 2003, Camara aroused ire on the Harvard-Radcliffe Ballroom Team for his leadership style while serving on the team's competition committee and was subjected to the team's first and only impeachment trial. It ultimately failed, and he remained on the team's Executive Board, further polarizing the team. He also plays tennis, golf, and racquetball. He is a supporter of high-school debate and coaches the nationally competitive varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate squad at Mountain View High School in California. He coached Prashant Rai who recently won the University of California at Berkeley tournament as well as Stephen Hess, the 2006 winner of the Tournament of Champions.

Racial Controversy at Harvard

While in law school, Camara posted onto a popular student website his class outlines which repeatedly referred to blacks as nig and nigs, shorthand for nigger, causing a huge uproar on campus. For example, when summarizing Shelley v. Kraemer, he wrote "Nigs buy land with no nig covenant; Q: Enforceable?" At the beginning of two of the three outlines that used the slurs Camara included a disclaimer saying that the outlines "may contain racially offensive shorthand."

Many students called for Camara to be disciplined, however the Harvard administration did not take any formal action against Camara, but did hold a forum on campus where faculty and administrators strongly condemned Camara's language. The law firm for which Mr. Camara interned in the summer of 2002, Irell & Manella of Los Angeles, declined to hire him for a full-time position for this reason.[citation needed]

Camara's actions set off two more racial incidents at Harvard Law School. The first occurred when Michelle Simpson, the African American law student who discovered the outlines and complained to the Harvard administration, was sent an e-mail defending Camara which stated that her overreaction to his use of racist language led him to "use the word nigger more often." A few days later a handwritten flyer was found in dozens of student mailboxes attacking Jews and with a swastika drawn on the top.

These incidents attracted unflattering media attention. Among the publications that printed stories about Camara are the Harvard Crimson, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and CNN.com.

Interviews with the Harvard Law School Record

Camara was interviewed by the Harvard Law School Record student newspaper about the controversies.

"I didn't know what particular offensive terms I might have used," he said. "And at the same time, my thought process was, 'Look I've composed my notes. I don't have a perfect knowledge of what's in them, but I know that I, as a 1L, would find them useful. I know that occasionally offensive things slip into my private work, so why don't I warn people that if you would be offended by such things, don't look.'"

Looking back Camara said that he realizes that he should not have posted the outlines and agrees that they were properly removed. He also said that in the future he would make an effort not use similar words, even privately.

"I will make a much more conscious attempt than I have made not to do so. I can't guarantee it. I certainly will not be sharing anything further on HLCentral," he said.

In another brief interview, again with the HLS Record, Camara further angered many students by refusing to guarantee he would not use racial slurs in the future.

When asked to explain his comment Mr. Camara remarked that it was a "mistake and a miscalculation." Asked if he would use such racial slurs in the future, he commented: "I will make a much more conscious attempt than I have made not to do so. I can't guarantee it."

"Nigs" Controversy Revived at Yale in 2005

In 2005 the Yale Law Journal accepted for publication one of Camara's articles. They did this unaware of the controversies at Harvard because Camara submitted his article under the name K.A.D. Camara rather than Kiwi Camara, the name used in the press coverage of the incident.

The controversy erupted anew when an anonymous e-mail informed the Law Journal's editors of Camara's use of racial slurs at Harvard and asked that his article not be published. Many Law Journal editors and other law students agreed with the e-mail, leading to a debate that for several days consumed the Yale Law School campus. The editors of the Yale Law Journal held a meeting to consider the issue, and decided that academic freedom required them to publish Camara's article. Many Yale Law students were upset by this decision, and formed a group that held protest activities and an alternative panel on "Disempowered Voices in the Legal Academy" at the same time as Camara's talk. Law school Dean Harold Koh was among several dozen students and faculty who walked out of Camara's talk.[citation needed]

Camara's co-author in the article, Paul Gowder, a Northern Virginia-based civil rights lawyer, strongly defended Camara in letters and e-mails to the Law Journal editors, insisting that he is not a racist.

Currently

As of May, 2006, Camara is a debate coach for Mountain View High School.

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