Patricia J. Williams is the James L. Dohr Professor of Law Emerita at Columbia Law School and the longtime former “Diary of a Mad Law Professor” columnist for The Nation. She is a MacArthur fellow and the author of six books, including The Alchemy of Race and Rights, Open House, and The Miracle of the Black Leg (The New Press). She is currently a University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities at Northeastern University in Boston, where she lives.