The College of Law hosted a panel discussion Wednesday, Nov. 12, on solutions to help combat discrimination. 

The discussion was titled Combating Discrimination: International, National, and Regional Challenges for the Next Administration and Congress. The panel was made up of three experts, who took turns discussing issues of discrimination at the local, national, and international levels.

The moderator for the panel was Rita Geier, the associate to the chancellor and senior fellow at UT's Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy. She began by introducing the panel and giving a few words of her own on the topic.

We have new hatreds and new discriminations that have come into the world.
-Rita Geier, associate to the chancellor

"We have new hatreds and new discriminations that have come into the world." Geier said.

We face new challenges in today's world to combat these new forms of discrimination, which include religious discrimination, immigrant discrimination, and discrimination based on sexual orientation, she said.

Fran Ansley, a UT College of Law distinguished professor emeritus, spoke about discrimination on the local level.

"If you were to look down on Tennessee, which is what's called a new destination for Latino immigrants, you would say 'wow, this is the exploitation of a new cast,'" Ansley said.

She focused her thoughts on East Tennessee and how immigration has brought new problems to the region. She then spoke on what can be done by lawyers to help combat this new discrimination.

"There's this rampant ignorance going around, and frankly one of the most important roles for lawyers in this is education," Ansley said.

Lawyers are responsible for informing immigrants about their rights in this country and - maybe just as important - their limitations as immigrants, she said.

Michael Lieberman, the Washington counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, spoke about discrimination on a national level and the challenges facing the incoming Obama administration.

"For civil rights activists in Washington D.C., one significant challenge is high expectations and how to manage those expectations," Lieberman said.

There's this rampant ignorance going around, and frankly one of the most important roles for lawyers in this is education.
-Fran Ansley, UT College of Law professor emeritus

Obama's victory was seen as such a historic event, which will cause expectations for his administration to be extremely high, he said. It is important for Obama to find ways to manage them.

Tad Stahnke, the director of the Fighting Discrimination Program and Human Rights First, spoke about discrimination on a global and international level.

"At all the different levels at which we're talking about and all the different levels in an individual's life that you can really make a difference." Stahnke said.

He talked about how when he was practicing law, the most rewarding thing that he ever did was represent two men from Tibet and Sudan who were seeking asylum in the U.S. He went on to talk about the opportunity the new Obama administration has in combating international discrimination.

"People have not even gotten their minds wrapped around what the opportunity is for a new Obama administration to be engaged internationally on discrimination and human rights questions," he said. People are just beginning to indulge their fantasies about what can happen with that."

Measures need to be taken to stop discrimination against certain groups, because talking about it just isn't enough, Stahnke said.