She usually dealt with setbacks quietly through personal meditation and philosophical musing. What happened in 1997, however, was too much for her to bear. When the faculty hired a white person for its new position in race and gender issues, April forced her unwilling and paralyzed fingers to type an open letter to the dean criticizing the faculty for perpetuating systemic discrimination against visible minorities in its hiring practices. In hiring a woman for the position, the hiring committee was able to understand that only a woman could truly teach gender issues. For some reason, it could not similarly grasp that race issues can be properly taught only by racial minorities.
Personal experience is integral to one's understanding of the law.
This is not to detract at all from the person who was actually hired. Rather, this is an admonishment of the hiring process. But never can a white person assume authority over experiences of oppression by minority groups. April had this intangible quality and it captivated her students. This is the same quality that mesmerized the Supreme Court of Canada when she argued R.D.S. before it.