RALPH RICHARD (Rick) BANKS

Ralph Richard Banks (born December 11, 1964) is a professor at Stanford Law School, where he has taught since 1998. He also teaches at the Stanford University School of Education. His scholarship focuses on race, inequality and the law.^[1] He published the book Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone in 2011.

Early life and education

Ralph Richard Banks grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from high school in 1983. He then enrolled at Stanford University, where he received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in 1987. He received his law degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1994.

After graduating from Stanford, Banks wrote regularly about race, culture, and inequality for a wide array of newspapers, including The New York Times,^[2] the Los Angeles Times,^[3] the Chicago Tribune, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Denver Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others.

After graduating from law school, Banks practiced law at the San Francisco office of O’Melveny & Myers. He is a member of the California Bar.

[edit] Academic career

After leaving private practice, Banks served as the Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School, where he wrote “The Color of Desire: Fulfilling Adoptive Parents’ Racial Preferences Through Discriminatory State Action.” The article subsequently appeared in the Yale Law Journal.^[4]

Following his fellowship, Banks clerked for the Honorable Barrington D. Parker, Jr., of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Banks’ research addresses issues related to race and inequality across a variety of domains, from criminal justice, to employment, to the family.^[5] He has written and lectured widely in these areas. Professor Banks teaches family law, employment discrimination law, race and law, and the Fourteenth Amendment. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia Law School. His scholarly writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review,^[6] the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review,^[7] and many others. He is an editorial board member of the Law & Society Review.

[edit] Courses Taught

•Constitutional Law II: The Fourteenth Amendment
•Employment Discrimination
•Equal Protection and Antidiscrimination Law
•Family Law

[edit] Personal life

Ralph Richard Banks lives with his wife, Jennifer Eberhardt, a prominent social psychologist^[8] who is also a Stanford University faculty member, and their three children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[edit] In the news

Banks is mentioned in Publisher’s Weekly on December 7, 2009 for his scholarship on race and the law. “Brian Tart, president and publisher of Dutton, bought world rights to Ralph Richard Banks’s ‘Is Marriage for White People? How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone‘”^[9]

Banks is quoted in the Los Angeles Times in its story on December 18, 2009, “Tiger Woods and wife: If they split, how to divide?.”^[10]

Banks is quoted in the Orlando Sentinel in its front-page story on December 19, 2009, “Stars’ special set of problems – Celebrity breakups often extra bumpy.”^[11]

Banks is quoted in the Sacramento Bee in its story on January 19, 2010, “At Heart Of Prop. 8 Trial, A Clash Over Motives.”^[12]

Banks wrote for the New York Times “Room for Debate” blog on January 24, 2010. The entry, “The Marriage Decline” appears as part of a feature on “Alpha Wives: the Trend and the Truth.”^[13]

Banks’ book is mentioned in the Los Angeles Times. “Soul-searching on the subject of romance” by Sandy Banks appears in the May 29, 2010 Los Angeles Times.^[14]

Banks was on ABC News on June 4, 2010. “Black Women Least Likely to Marry, but Overall Interracial Marriage More Common Than Ever.”^[15]

Banks blogged in the New York Times “Room for Debate” blog on June 4, 2010, “The Soul Mate Factor” (in “Divorce: It’s Not Always About You”)^[16]

Banks was a guest on Which Way, LA?. “The Prop 8 Arguments Are Over, Now It’s Up to the Judge” aired on Wednesday, June 16, 2010.^[17]

Banks was quoted on Morning Edition on NPR. “Will Gay Marriage Be A Ripple Or Tsunami?” aired on August 5, 2010.^[18]

Banks was on OnPoint Radio on December 8, 2010. “Rick Banks on black marriage: when women earn more money than husbands, we see higher divorce rates.”^[19]

The Marriage Decline, Room for Debate: A Running Commentary on the News, New York Times, January 24, 2010.^[20]

Author Tells Black Women: Marry “Out” Not “Down”, NPR News, June 29, 2011.^[21]

Marriage: Denied and Delayed, Forum with Michael Krasny, KQED Radio, July 19, 2011.^[22]

Email: rbanks@law.stanford.edu