Social Justice

Labor of Love: Student Reflections on the Life and Legacy of Karl Klare

By Annemarie Guare, Julian Montijo, and Meg Foster

On April 8, 2022, Northeastern University School of Law (NUSL) celebrated the legacy of Karl Klare, George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished Professor of Law, with a day-long conference organized and attended by the peers, mentors, students, and friends who have shaped and been shaped by Karl. As three of those students, the Northeastern University Law Review asked that we write an article in conjunction with the Labor of Love conference. We readily agreed, honored to provide a testimonial, if not also allured by the prospect of probing someone who has walked the halls of this curious institution for forty odd years . . .

Comedy and Its Social Influence—Maybe It Is More Than “Just a Joke”

By Sarah Eve Rosen

A little over a year ago, during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I attended a live stand-up comedy show in West Palm Beach, Florida. The comedian, Ricky Velez, started his performance with the line: “I am not into politics, I don’t know about that stuff.” Among some of his sillier jokes (such as claiming he thought fracking was a sex position), he also joked about growing up in a poor, predominantly Puerto Rican community, and the cultural shock he experienced when he began to date his affluent, white Jewish girlfriend. He made jokes such as: “her family is so rich, they live to be so old—it’s wild,” as the predominantly white, non-social distanced, and mask-less crowd burst into laughter . . .