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The university described in Scalia’s parenthetical reminds me a lot of the University of Miami, where there was a beast known as “minority life” which consisted of minority fraternal organizations, clubs, events, and a de facto minority dorm.

That was the backdrop for the 0L summer “I am not Tyrone” tirade post.

That was also why I didn’t apply to the minority Big Law summer internship program, which had a prompt akin to “Tell us your victimization story.”

Anyhoot. Back to Conlaw… this week is officially crunch time…

Just Sayin / Law School / Law School – 2L

More brown faces

September 30, 2009

Note: I understand people are busy, so here are some cliffnotes for the rant:

  • Diversity Initiatives aimed at black students tend to assume that all black students are African American and have a shared background.
  • Diversity is more than a skin-color. The Persian or Korean student may have more to add than a “black” student who grew up in a “white” environment, but there is an arbitrary preference for the black student.

Today’s reading assignment for Employment law involved Title VII workplace discrimination claims.

I was reminded of the “I am not Tyrone” post that I wrote during the law school admissions process when I was worried about law schools balking at my lack of stereotypical African-American “blackness” because that was exactly what some schools were recruiting me for.

After the first day of orientation, my housemates pointed out that I was the only black person in our year.1 This was a recurring conversation during my 1L year, and I was amused that the lack of “diversity” bothered2 white students more than it did me.

This year the law school gave fee vouchers to black applicants and (surprise, surprise) we have more black students.

Several of our 50-some-odd transfers are also black. Of course the Black Law Students Association is thrilled, but I think the black students serve a dual purpose by giving the white students a piece of mind.3

Congratulations. You can feel like you go to a “diverse” school now.

Out of the seven 1Ls at the BLSA meeting, I think only one of them wasn’t mixed (ie, half/white or Asian) but Americans who want diversity for diversity’s sake care primarily about appearance of African-American ancestry.4

The most obvious example of this is our president, and the reaction of the African-American community to his election.

No one stopped to ask whether the son of white woman and an African immigrant bore anything more than a superficial relation to the African-American community.4 Obama is not the progeny of the people who have been oppressed in this country for 400 years any more than Bobby Jindal is.

And what about an Indian candidate? Would Jessie Jackson be as excited to see Bobby Jindal win the presidency? What if Jindal was married to a black woman? Would we have Jindal T-shirts at Urban Outfitters then?

The answer is no.

The civil rights movement opened the door for Jindal just as it did for people of every race and sex, but we would not have the same homecoming celebration for anyone that did not “appear” African-American because the focus on diversity is as superficial as the discriminatory practices it aims to counter.

Anyhoot, before I start parroting Michelle Malkin, let me just get to the holding5 of the post:
A diversity initiative is bigoted and backward if it simply seeks people of a particular skin color irrespective of whether that person truly represents the historically oppressed group that the diversity initiative is trying to promote.
If a Haitian-American student is eligible for the “black scholarship” then why not an Asian American? The only difference is that we didn’t historically oppress as many people that look like the Asian as much as we did people who look like the Haitian. Why should the Haitian benefit from this?

Sure, we aren’t going to inquire about a black person’s background to determine whether they are African American like we ask for tribal affiliation of a Native American. So why bother?

What is the point of recruiting black students, or persons of any minority status at all? Under the current system the half-black student raised in a white household gets a fee voucher and a tour, but the Persian or Korean applicant is ignored.

And I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate the diversity of my school., because I think it’s fascinating.

But to me the diversity includes the ignored minorities (the Persians, Koreans, Chinese), the variety6 of black students, and even the white students who come from different parts of the country and have different education/vocational backgrounds.

And I think it is sad that this diversity is lost on the students and administrators who are only looking for more brown faces.7

1 There are two others, but they were not as readily identifiable.
2 It annoys me that people refer to the lack of one minority group (blacks) as “a lack of diversity.” Nevermind the East-Asians, Indians, Hispanics, and Native Americans we have in our year – everyone wants to see Tyrone.
3 Not to say that being half-black somehow makes one “not black” but what I’m harping on is the assumption that all black people share the same African-American background, which is the only assumption that can justify the focus on the community. Do people really care about the Ethiopian or Somali students? If so, why are these people not equally thrilled by the amount of East-Indians and Koreans at our school?
4 Community organizing and marrying an African-Woman helps. I’m not saying that he’s not special for his own reasons, but the phrase “the first black president” implies “the first African-American president” rather than “the first Kenyan-American president.”
5 If blog posting interrupts my legal research I can use “Holding.”
6 Somali, Caribbean, black-white, black-filipino, black-Cuban…Africans…etc. Really this is a forest/for the trees statement. The “black” community is more diverse than your average person cares about.
7 These are the same people that don’t realize that Hispanics in Miami look more like Gloria, Enrique, and Pitbull than Carlos Mencia.

0L

I am not Tyrone.

June 25, 2008
Man with headphone photo by Enrico Bettella via Unsplash.

I found an old copy of the National Jurist around the law school.

The lead story is “Disappearing Act: minority enrollment at a 15-year low, despite more applicants with better LSAT scores.”
“In 2002-2003, 63 percent of all black applicants were not admitted to law schools.”

The article attributes the decline in minority enrollment mostly to a backlash against affirmative action and a new ABA minimum bar pass requirement. The ABA will require schools to meet a minimum bar pass rate in order to maintain accreditation. This new rule threatens a handful of HBCUs – including Southern University, Florida A&M, Howard, and Texas Southern –which have a bar pass rate under the required 75 percent.

The National Jurist article also suggests this rule would discourage schools from accepting minority applicants because “Hispanic and black students traditionally struggle on standardized exams, especially the bar exam.”

So what are law schools doing to recruit minorities? According to National Jurist, law schools are now taking “a personal approach” to admissions.

I saw this “personal approach” at work this past year. I was more aggressively recruited by law schools than when I applied to undergrad, even though I was a better applicant coming out of high school.

After I signed up for LSDAS the paper flood began.

Every day I received letters and packets from different schools. “Come here. We are different.”

Within each packet was a letter that mentioned diversity in some way, “Come here. We have minorities.”

And when the school really DIDN’T have minorities the letter was, “Come here. We welcome minorities. We have about six of you now.”

A fee waiver was usually included among the glossy photos of smiling black and Hispanic students. I received fee waivers from over 50 schools.

I applied to about 40 schools. Why not? It was free.

I only applied to one school that didn’t send me a fee waiver: my first choice, UMN.

Then the calls began.

Deans and presidents of Black/Minority/Gay Law Student associations began calling every day.

The most ridiculous instance was a series of late (9pm-ish) calls made by black girls from a certain school’s Black Law Student Association.
Girl: Hey.
Me: Hi?
Girl (giggling): Do you know who this is?
Me: Uh, no?
Girl: It’s Keisha.
Me: Keisha?
Girl: Yes. I’m calling from SoandSo University’s School of Law.
Me (checking the clock. It’s 9:15pm.): Okay.
Girl: Well, I was wondering if you had any questions about the school.
Me: No. I don’t. I’m going to the University of Minnesota in the fall.
Girl: Well SoandSo University’s School of Law is a wonderful place. Do you mind if I tell you about it?
Me: I’m really not interested. Thank you for the call. I’d like to withdraw my application. Thanks.
Girl: Oh,…okay, thanks.

Click.

9:30pm the next night I receive a call from another black girl from the same school.

Girl: Hello, is this Dennis?
Me: Yes?
Girl: Hi, this is Sharon from SoandSo University’s School of Law.
Me: Hi, yes, I received a call yesterday. I’d like to withdraw my application. Thank you.

And yes.
I received a third call.
On the third day.
Around 8pm.
And I was annoyed.

After the first week of calls the personal approach was officially irritating. The calls adopted an aggressive, menacing tone. Deans of law schools kept demanding that I justify my decision to go to UMN.

I found myself becoming a virtual marketer for U Minnesota’s law school. “Well UMN has a large number of clinical programs, and requires legal writing all three years and…”

When I told one dean that I had paid my deposit at UMN he said, “Well we’re not giving up that easily!” What followed was an almost hour long debate of statistics. Yes. I had the UMN booklet in hand.

I finally said, “Sorry. I want to live and practice in Minneapolis and it makes no sense to go to a school anywhere else, unless it was a top 5 school that offered a substantial scholarship.”

The law school application experience became even more awkward when some (white) friends who had a higher LSATs and GPAs were rejected from law schools that gave me scholarships.

They didn’t need to say anything. The race factor was implicit. They had better scores than I did, but they were not receiving the same acceptances or calls.

Minority enrollment is at a 15 year low, and I can’t help but think that I was accepted to some schools simply because I checked the African American/Black box.

Things at my undergrad were a bit awkward when people realized I am not interchangeable with Tyrone from down the block.

I did not have a the stereotypical black-American experience. I grew up in a German-speaking household in Kansas.

When these law schools accepted me, were they expecting Tyrone?

The law school that had the girls call me at 9pm certainly did.

I actually considered this before applying for law schools. I checked both boxes (black and white), or the multiracial box, when available.

I also included a second personal statement with my applications that clarified my race and ethnicity and why they are relevant to my study of law. I wrote that my racial and ethnic otherness is a great asset.

Many people find me so different that they don’t associate any stereotypes with me.
I have been able to change misperceptions (and prejudices) about groups more effectively because most people don’t clearly associate me with any given group.

People usually identify with the part of me that is most similar to themselves, (whether black, German, Asian or native American (yes I have those too), or the fact that I look Hispanic.) And then begin to break their stereotypes associated with my other ethnicities/races.

The byzantine approach to race worked for my law school applications, but the question is will it work when I apply to firms, or will they prefer Tyrone?