Introduction from Thought Provoking Essay by Neil Turkewitz, Blurry Lines: The Complex Intersection of Race & Intellectual Property (2021)
Race, class and power are all reified and reflected in the positive expression of our normative structures, so why would intellectual property be an exception to that? It isn’t. It’s that simple. But the broader implications of her statement are anything but simple. In particular, observing that intellectual property norms rest on “racial scripts” is an extremely important place to begin a journey, but it doesn’t represent an observation unique to intellectual property. Accepting, as I do, that current norms reflect disparities in power and influence that largely align with race, our job should be to carefully examine which particular aspects of our intellectual property rights systems pose such disadvantages, and to work to dismantle them.
