I've always believed that African-American lawyers have an obligation to help others deciding whether to enter the profession. How many black historians, writers, and philosophers have we lost to the legal grind?
I know a young woman who has made the biggest mistake of her life.
"Shelby" is an attractive, intelligent, and driven student at a top University. And she is Black. When I met Shelby, she was in her first year at college and her mom was quite pleased that she had gained admission to a top University. Over the last 3 years, I learned that Shelby was very interested in foreign relations, having taken advantage of international study programs. She traveled overseas and developed a genuine passion for international policy. On occasion, Shelby's mother and I would talk about Shelby's progress. Shelby loved college and had developed close friendships, particularly among the African-American community. But it was also clear that Shelby worked very hard to achieve a 3.3 grade point average, leaving little room or time for dates and parties. I admired Shelby's discipline and focus, in part, because I had been so driven as a Black student at the University of Virginia.
So I had mixed emotions when I learned that Shelby was going to take the LSAT and apply to law school. For several years, my wife, a former Minority Affairs administrator, and I recruited African-American law students to a bottom-ranked law school. While we celebrated the accomplishments of a few who made law review and excelled, having found their calling, we were pained by a greater number who flunked out, struggled during their first year, or encountered a cold reception from employers. I cannot speak for my wife but, at times, I felt like we were selling dreams of prestige and financial success while turning a blind eye to the misery most admitted students, particularly minority students, would weather in law school.
When I next talked with Shelby's mom, she told me that Shelby had "not done well" on the LSAT. She had scored at the 84th percentile. As a result, she was "reconsidering" law school. I assured Shelby's mom that Shelby would make a good choice. In my experience (assuming the role of former law professor), I reasoned that the 84th percentile was not horrible but Shelby might now have a good reason to pursue her interest in foreign relations. I added, with a knowing grin, that the law was not an ideal profession for everyone.
A few months later, I learned, to my surprise, that not only had Shelby applied to law school but also she had applied to a number of elite law schools and gained admission to the University of Chicago. I congratulated Shelby's mom and my congratulations were genuine. It is no small feat to gain admission to the law school at Chicago, ranked in the top five of law schools. Chicago received over 3,500 applications for 171 seats in their first-year class. Chicago may well have the top admissions criteria of any law school in the country, with all due respect to my alma mater, Harvard Law School. I offered Shelby's mom my assessment that Chicago was the center of a conservative legal movement known as Law and Economics, so Shelby needed to appreciate that Chicago had a conservative reputation in legal education. I shared my own experiences in law school and how I would study if I were in law school again. I am sure that I bored Shelby's mom with my details but I've always believed that African-American lawyers have an obligation to help others deciding whether to enter the profession.
You may think that Shelby's story will have a happy ending, if she accepts Chicago's offer. You would be wrong.
Over the summer, Shelby will bask in a warm glow of acclaim from family and friends. Chicago, like Stanford, Yale, and Harvard, evokes instant credibility and respect. Black graduates of the law school who, wisely, may advise her to take a year off from the academic treadmill may contact her. She will not listen to them. She will be eager to get on with her life in the law.
When she arrives at Chicago, the Black Law Students Association will arrange orientation programs for Shelby and other entering African-American students. Whether the offerings are workshops, picnics, or legal method sessions, the point will be to make Shelby feel at home, to give her a "head start." Even a conservative institution like the University of Chicago's Law School will condone these efforts in the name of "diversity."
As classes begin, all law students will be stunned by the complexity of the material. Legal opinions are essentially a foreign language that students must digest: What are the relevant and material facts in a case? What are the applicable rules of law? The holding? The rationale? Dicta? The reasoning in casebooks will be dense and all students will constantly face too much work and the ever-present threat of sharp questioning from a seasoned law professor who may have been teaching Contracts, Civil Procedure or Torts for years. Yes, Shelby will be immersed in a new level of challenge, difficulties that will cause her to yearn for the certainty of her undergrad courses.
Not only is the work overwhelming but also she will know within two or three weeks that she is out of her league. The average LSAT score at Chicago's Law School ranges in the 98th percentile. The summer glow of feeling that all is possible with hard work, that hard work will see you through, will give way to a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach that she's not in the game. Period. The gap between Shelby's grade point average and that of her average classmate's will be a full .5 points, the difference between a 3.3 and a 3.8. Now consider how distant Shelby will be in talent and ability from the top students in her class. Shelby has gained admission to a game where she is bringing up the rear.
Now Shelby will fight an epic fight for academic success. As the weeks wear on, however, she will set her sights on a solid B average, having discerned that her top classmates, the likely A students, are participating at an unobtainable level in dissecting legal material and throwing back crisp argument to the brightest law professors in the country.
Then, alienation will set in. Shelby will start to pass as a typical student with credentials indistinguishable from anyone else. She will overhear students talking about their summa cum laude degrees, their Phi Beta Kappa keys, 4.0 grade point averages and, because she desperately wants to belong, Shelby will not volunteer her undergraduate statistics, or, if asked, change the subject as smoothly as she can. But passing weakens the spirit, trashes one's identity, and renders one vulnerable. By late November, Shelby will sense that everyone around her is catching on to the game. If she belongs to a study group, her study group will likely be all Black, an ominous sign both because few Black law students have better than average LSAT scores and college grades at Chicago and because their shared vulnerability (remember, everyone is passing) will feed on itself.
As exams approach, panic will set in. Shelby will be studying every minute of every hour of every day, save for her fitful hours of sleep. So much is riding on her doing well — $50,000 a year tuition, positive self-image, racial vulnerability. She will have learned that the law is a very unforgiving profession. Grades are THE key to jobs. Top students at Chicago have their pick of the top paying law firm jobs and prestigious judicial clerkships. Average students at Chicago can still find clerkships and jobs at firms with ease. What her fellow students and professors do not share are the dismal prospects for students in the bottom third of the class: a cold shoulder from firms, rigorous screening by judges, and disillusionment with job opportunities. Shelby learned as an undergraduate that hard work is rewarded, so she will overcompensate and limit her life to the four corners of the classroom, the library, and her bedroom.
You may share Shelby's faith in the power of Herculean study. You would be naïve.
I have counseled too many distraught law students after grades came out to believe any correlation exists between hours of study and law school grades. Students would complain because they studied all the time (and I believed them) and flunked out anyway. Other students would say that they studied a lot in one subject, say, Contracts, and got a C but relied on commercial outlines in say, Torts, and got a B. My favorite example of the craziness of law school grading would be my friend "Joseph," a law professor at a top 25 law school. Now Joseph is a brilliant professor but study habits in law school were not his forte. I recall a course where he did not attend a single class; save for the last class that he attended so he would know where the exam was being held (must take the test to get a grade, you know). Anyway, Joseph relied on commercial outlines, studied at the last minute and either got an A or a B in the class. There is no justice.
But Joseph scored at about the 95th percentile on the LSAT. He was in the game. Shelby is not competitive with an 84th percentile score at Chicago — no amount of study will compensate for her LSAT deficiency. That is a blunt truth.
And so on a winter's day in January or February, Chicago will send Shelby her first-semester grades. When I attended Harvard Law School, the Registrar hand-delivered first-semester grades with grave finality in an Austin Hall classroom. One moment, all is possible in the law; the next moment, your path for life is set in the law. I recall that some students wept openly in Langdell Hall on that fateful day. Others seemed delirious with the prospect of making law review, reserved for the top 5 percent of the class, and a life of privileged opportunity. Shelby will fight back the tension and anxiety, hoping that she did "ok" with a solid B. More likely, if her LSAT score and college grade point average are any guide, she will open her first-semester grades and her heart will drop to the floor. She will see grades that she has never known in her charmed life. The blood will drain from her face. She will fight back the tears and walk aimlessly around campus, perhaps in a developing Chicago snowstorm. And Shelby will be a changed person . . . forever.
Now, I love Black people. I believe in African-American achievement to the core of my being. My heart sings when I see Condoleezza Rice conducting masterful press releases. When my boys see Kofi Annan and Colin Powell on television, I rejoice that they take Black powerful men for granted. That is good.
Law schools are not good for Blacks.
Blacks should not go to law school because law schools have rigged the game. Unlike other professions, grades are hypercritical throughout one's career in the law. I know this from personal experience. Headhunters have told me of law firms rejecting a partner with a million dollars of portable business because of the partner's grades. That is insane. And it happens because the profession treats grades as a professional IQ.
Now, why admit students who will be bringing up the rear of the class, if you know that the profession will close those students out of jobs? If you know that those students will go through the charade of recruitment season and turn up with limited, if any, associate opportunities because of their grades?
Self-esteem flows from mastery of one's profession, one's livelihood. Confidence comes from feeling connected to the values and attitudes of one's peers. Power is a factor of acceptance. If the firm does not hire you because of grades, then you never become a powerful law firm partner. If you are out of the running for a judicial clerkship because of grades, then the odds are against your becoming a law professor at a respectable law school and influencing future lawyers.
I do think that law schools are well suited for Black students at the top of their game in college. For example, students like William T. Coleman, a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, or Charles Houston, a Phi Beta Kappa at Amherst, are in an excellent position to excel in law school. Coleman graduated first in his class at Harvard Law School and Houston was in the top 5 percent of his Harvard Law School class. Similarly, students who feel a true calling to practice law, an adversarial profession, would be good candidates for law school. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and multi-millionaire attorney Willie Gary come to mind.
When Black students with uncompetitive credentials attend law schools, especially elite law schools like Chicago; they hurt the cause of Black advancement in several ways. First, they commit themselves to a brutal career track that promises disappointment, frustration, and self-doubt. The Shelby I know has a lot going for her. Why risk all that you uniquely bring to the game of life for the prospect of being in the bottom third of an elite law school? Secondly, uncompetitive Black law students boost the class ranking of white students. If no Blacks attended Chicago Law School, then other students would bring up the rear. Third, Black underachievement reinforces stereotypes that Blacks cannot compete in intellectual pursuits. We all know the stereotype is bogus but how do you educate your classmates who have a 4.0 grade point average about African-American brainpower with a 3.3 grade point average? You cannot because you are too busy passing and overcompensating.
There is a strong urge in the Black community to walk through all the doors of opportunity. I understand the hunger for professional fame and fortune. I dismissed a career as a historian for a shot at Harvard Law School, just as Shelby has grasped the Chicago Law School ring in lieu of graduate study in foreign relations. I am a 41-year-old lawyer now and I have seen law schools scoop up the young, gifted, and Black for at least 20 years. But how many historians, writers, and philosophers have we lost to the legal grind? How many? If their grades and LSAT scores are not competitive, it is time for Black students to say no to law schools, and, yes to following your passion, your bliss. If you have caught the attention of an elite law school, you probably have shown an unusual depth in an undergraduate discipline. Pursue that interest and say no to law schools.
When you change your thoughts, you change your world.
– Norman Vincent Peale
It is the most penurious vehicles of tacit racism. The belief that one has to make exceptions for certain classes of people because one believe they really can't compete with others. Alan Keyes, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Larry Elder, Bill Cosby, Clarence Thomas, Jessie-Lee Peterson, and Condoleeza Rice beg to differ.
For the most part, an eyeopener for anyone considering any postgraduate path they are not truly called to follow. It sounds, though, like a caution against "biting off more than one can chew" than against going to law school in general.
I'm curious: what would have become of Shelby had she been accepted to, and chosen to attend, a simply above-average law school instead of a top-5 school? I'd imagine she'd be able to make the top two-thirds and and decent grades. Do only grads from the top-5 find satisfying and rewarding work? Or is it that only they get the stellar, role model positions? Color me ignorant, but I can't imagine that she wouldn't get any offers that'd be financially and personally rewarding, or alternatively, not be able to apply that mid-level JD to a career in international affairs.
BTW, unlike many (most?) of my comments, these are honest questions, not rhetorical digs.
I can not believe this was even posted here! to quote the writer "Now, why admit students who will be bringing up the rear of the class, if you know that the profession will close those students out of jobs?" the reason this was done is affirmitive action. Lets put your raciest comment aside "Law schools are not good for Blacks" and your lack of confidence in your friend, the young lady. In what manner does this colum have to do with conservatives? It looks to me like well covered raciest statements?
I shold have included this on my last post, but Kofi Annan is not a man to be looked up to. Kofi Annan is a criminal, and children should be told not to emulate him.
"It is no small feat to gain admission to the law school at Chicago, ranked in the top five of law schools."
It's not. Say what you will about its merit, but its ranking is lower than five.
"Chicago received over 3,500 applications for 171 seats in their first-year class."
4,800 apps for 192 seats, actually, according to ABA data.
"Chicago may well have the top admissions criteria of any law school in the country,"
This is not actually true. By any measure, Yale, Stanford, and Harvard are all significantly more competitive and more difficult to get into.
"I've always believed that African-American lawyers have an obligation to help others deciding whether to enter the profession."
I hate this. Being black — or being a member of any other morally neutral minority — does not confer any moral obligation on anyone.
WRONG.
According to LSAC data, the correlation coefficient between LSAT and law school grades is a miserable .4. That's better than between UGPA and law school grades, but it is still very weak.
http://www.lsacnet.org/Research/Predictive-Validity-of-the-LSAT-National-Summary-of-the-2001%E2%80%932002-Correlation-Studies.pdf
Shelby is not doomed to bad grades at Chicago. Her study may well pay off.
As an entry level law student I can agree with this author that only those who have a passion for law should try it. If you have any doubts about becoming a lawyer do not. Many people would be better off chasing their real passion rather than trying to be something they do not have the drive to be.
Perhaps Shelby will make it and perhaps she won’t. If one compares the rates at which minorities start at elite universities with the rate at which they graduate you will find a stark contrast. Many liberals want to admit a certain number of minorities in the name of diversity without considering whether those students have been prepared for school by their, usually, public school education. The liberals look to how many got in but not how many graduated. This sounds to me more like liberals making themselves feel good rather than really doing something constructive.
Mr. Morgan, there are studies out there that point to the fact that if Shelby chose to go to a school with a less prestigious name and ended up in the upper end of her class then she would have a better chance at the high end jobs than a student with her grades and other achievements at an elite law school who happened to have lower grades. Grades are EVERYTHING.
Loafer, on your last comment about people “being a member of any other morally neutral minority” not having a moral obligation to help others I must disagree. We must accept that in the recent past women, ethnic minorities, and the poor (regardless of race) were shut out of many of the best opportunities in our society. There is a very strong moral requirement for those who have succeeded in over coming adversity to act as role models for those who are facing similar problems. If those who have over come their own background don’t act as role models then to whom will the youth of tomorrow look to? Gangster Rappers? Britney Spears? Sports figures who slug referees?
Anon a 40% correlation is not to be over looked. Law school is primarily about learning to think in a certain fashion. Anyone can use law-school by mail courses and become a lawyer. Going to law school is more about learning to a) fit into the legal culture, b) networking so you can find a good job, and c) learning to think like a lawyer. Only in 4th place is learning the actual black letter law. That is why those student who score high on the LSAT and use commercial outlines do so well compared to us lesser folks who study all the time.
I think I am learning to be a lawyer…I am forget how to shut up!! ;-)
A smallish side point: large law firms increasingly (and are under increasing pressure to) use affirmative action in their hiring decisions. A black student from a top law school can get a high-paying and prestigious firm job with low grades. How things go once you're actually in the firm I can't say, but I imagine things get pretty rough pretty fast.
A high percentage of beneficiaries of affirmative action are not disadvantaged and have had comparable educational advantages as many of those who perform at extremely high levels. In the case of Shelby, it was noted that she attended a top university. Even with a monolithic dedication to her studies, she was only able to achieve a 3.3GPA. In truth, there is a large group of students who achieve at that level or better in fairly effortless fashion. The truth appears more that Shelby was a hard worker (which is to be admired and will serve her well) rather than a gifted student. That is why LSATs have a function. There is a difference in achieving by virtue of fanatical studying and achieving by virtue of ability coupled with a balanced amount of work.
This piece is rather interesting only because there is some truth to it- a truth that no one in admissions offices will speak of.
Black law students rarely do as well as their Asian or White counterparts. How many black students made law review on the sheer basis of grades? At my school, none. In fact, I am the only non-white person on law review, the first in a few years to grade on. Black students often went to better undergrad universities, though they usually earned similar or lower scores on the LSAT. But why are there none on law review? some law reviews have taken to affirmative action in their write-on programs, this is ridiculous. but still- why are there virtually no black law students in the top of their class?
My theory is that they work hard- but they don't work smart. they think hard work is the key. it is- but only if they work smart. Not enough law students work smart. they waste hours reading meaningless cases rather than learning the black letter law. they don't spend enough time learning to take exams. they are still reading the cases. they don't spend enough time working through old exams. they are still caught up learning the theory behind some of the law- this is irrelevant. law school exams are for the most part black letter law exams that test a student's ability to take the exam and memorize the law.
black law students need to stop taking advice from other black law students that is the blind leading the blind. get out and meet the kids that do well. they should be talking to the rich, preppy, and smart asian and white 2L students. this is a better use of their time rather than going to picnics and BLSA receptions.
I can only second "A Law Student's" opinion that spending more time learning how to take exams and talking with the students that receive high marks is a more efficient and successful tactic than going on socials events that only serve to reinforce a student's isolation from the legal community.
The legal community seems to be very much like an old time guild; made even more so by states mandating attendance to law schools teaching a learning method invented in 1888. Last I checked only California (and maybe New York I am not sure) allow for a non-attorney to challenge their state bar exams. The rest of the states require attendance of a certified legal institution before allowing someone to take the bar. It is a long cry from when Abe Lincoln found a few law books at a yard sale and taught himself everything he needed to know to pass the Illinois bar. As one senior law student told me, law school is about learning the legal culture not about learning the law. If one is to be successful in navigating first law school and later the rough seas of legal practice, a student must learn the rules by which the guild operates.
While I cannot speak from the ethnic minority experience I can speak from the economically disadvantaged perspective. I am the first person in my family to graduate high school and college. I am struggling to learn the culture of middle and upper class America and the legal culture all at the same time. The only way I can learn those cultures is to listen, watch, and learn from those who have been, and are being, successful. I believe that for the minority student, struggling to understand the legal culture, and probably the WASP culture as well, the same suggestion applies. Listen, Watch, and Learn from those who are being successful rather than sticking to old habits that are not working.
In response to comment no. 2–
Much study needs to be done in this area. Sander hints at it in his research on racial preferences in law schoo admissions and law firm hiring. Absent research, I can only offer examples that I know of. In Case 1, a student attended a bottom-tier law school. He ranked 7 in hi class and served on law review. He could not find a job in the city of his choice. Thus, he found a government job in another city and passed the bar the first time. In Case 2, a student with a great LSAT and grade point average attended a bottom-ranked law school. She excell3ed. I do not think she was on law review but she received the highest score in the class in Contracts. Because of her ability, she transferred to a third-tier school. She was in the top half of her class. She received an offer from a medium-sized firm where she remained for a yera or two. She now works for a corporation and teaches at night at a local college. Her desire (not surprising because of her intellectual curiosity) is to teach full-time. I consider Case 2 a success story.. But I also wonder if this student would have been happier pursuing a Phd in the area iof her passion. She has a wonderful mind for philosophy. But she chose the law. And years later she is fighting to return to the academc. Ther
Nothing wrong with B-students
I would not be overly concerned for Shelby. She seems more than adequately blessed with what she needs to succeed. If she fails in her first attempt, it won’t be the worst thing that could happen and is usually a blessing. We all get lumps, and those lumps are a more valuable part of our education than what goes on in classrooms. For every A-student, there are dozens of B-students. B-students fill most of the jobs that make prestigious A-student jobs both glamorous and possible. We’re the workhorses who get the real work done while the A-students get all the glory. The A-student will spend his life dodging lumps, staying on top, and worrying he’ll fall the way we did. We’ve already fallen and found it isn’t fatal. When we failed to take the high ground, we B-students often switched to something we really liked (avoiding getting stuck, in the process, doing something we’d loathe). Often, we’re a lot happier than those poor, rich, prestige encumbered A-students. While they’re focusing on making that next big rung, we’re focusing on family, job, and friendships.
Like Shelby, I studied hard in school. I studied far more than many of my classmates, yet never made the top tier (I graduated 3.2 GPA). Like her, I worried I wouldn’t succeed in school or life. Like Mr. Lickliss, I enjoyed few advantages and was the first (and only one) in my family to graduate from college. Partly, that was the times. We forget that, prior to WWII, college education was the exception and not the norm. For my generation, unfortunately, it became the measure of success and abject failure. My parents were fairly poor and struggling to house, clothe and feed six kids. There was no money to send any of us to college. If we were going to make it, it was going to be on our own. Neither of my parents were college educated (though one of my grandfathers and one great-grandfather were). My dad never graduated high school (the war and raising a family precluded that), yet he was well-read, well-spoken, talented, and valued education immensely. So did my mom, brothers and sister.
So it was that I found all eyes on me to succeed. I was the best student in the family. I took school seriously (as well as enjoying it), and got the best grades. I was also the family know-it-all, the one my siblings chided for being such a pompous ass (you know the type). My dad openly boasted to our neighbors that “Rob will be the lawyer”; which I took to mean (coupled with his love of law) he yearned for me to become the lawyer he hadn’t. I didn’t know anything about lawyering (other than watching Perry Mason on TV). I was impressed by lawyers, yet had no idea if that’s what I wanted. Despite having no money (and knowing nothing about scholarships), I took every job and saved every penny to pay for classes at the local community college. I tried to figure on my own which classes would get me into law-school. I had no idea about LSATs, curricula, or how to apply. Pretty soon, I was floundering. I was attempting classes I hadn’t laid any groundwork for. I had terrible study habits, reading too much that wasn’t covered, too little that was relevant, and clueless how to prepare for tests. The need to earn enough to stay in school often took precedence, and I let it be an excuse for avoiding topics I wasn’t really interested in. I found myself watching myself going down like one of those slow-motion free-fall movies.
Needless to say, I dropped out. For awhile, I imagined my parents and family were immensely disappointed in me, and I avoided any discussion of it. I threw myself into the family business to atone. I knew I was a pretty good mechanic, and I focused on become the best my dad had working for him. I didn’t know it then, but I was learning stuff identical to and just as hard as the engineering courses I’d study latter when I went back to school. First though, I had a Navy tour of duty to fulfill. The Navy gave me time to step back, see what I’d done wrong, and some of what I needed to start over. It also taught me it is okay to get help when you’re out of your depth. In boot camp, I took some tests and was offered the chance to attend Officer Candidate School. I was so bummed out by my initial attempt at college, however, that I turned it down. It is just as well, because I still wasn’t ready. After the Navy, I returned to work with my dad and we formed a close bond. We talked about my fiasco in college and, as it turned out, I had mistaken his intention (his bragging had been an attempt to build my self-esteem). Like all good parents he wanted each of us to find what really excited us and go with that.
(continued)
(cont.)
During a business slump, I took a temporary job at the University of Maryland; which turned out to be my opening. I cautiously started taking classes at the right level and found I was a better student than I’d ever imagined. This time, I figured out where I wanted to go and charted a course. I asked for help from my instructors and the sharper students. I still worked less efficiently than A-students, but I was getting the hang of it. Lickless is right that this is partly a cultural thing, and we were late getting into it. Although my scores never put me in the top tier, they were more than enough to satisfy my altered expectations. I was encouraged by my family, teachers, and girl friend (later my wife), yet I never let it assume the mind-blowing importance it had before. The journey, rather than the end point, mattered more. Instead of painting myself into corners, I was studying to satisfy my passion for knowledge, and relegated career to a side issue. Where I had struggled, waffled, and endured my first attempt, I soared, persisted, and delighted in my second.
My dad’s measures of success weren’t making a pile of money, a prestigious job, or academic achievement. His measures were finding those things that turned him on, finding his soul-mate, and living free and according to worthwhile values. He was no success by the customary measures. His cousins and educated friends would say things that made clear he should to have done better. Life was hard on him and he died young from asbestosis. Yet it was the hard things in his life he cherished: the loss of his mom, growing up virtually an orphan, the Depression, the war, providing for his family, starting his own business without any assets, fighting emphysema, arrhythmia, and cancer, and watching his kids stumble before we got smart. Despite that, I can’t recall anyone more satisfied with the way his life turned out. Money, prestige, and excellence sometimes accompany happiness, but not always. It is pleasing to get a good wage you really earned, it’s nice getting the respect you think you deserve from those you think matter, and it is pleasing to your ego when you get high marks. Yet, they aren’t what make us supremely happy. Knowing you’ve done the right things and helped others give far better returns.
Winkfield,
I sense you are wrestling with a conflict between conservative and/or traditional values and liberal canon. Why else write this to a conservative forum. Perhaps, you prefer discussing this with liberals or a neutral forum, but realize how badly it would be received in those quarters. Here, you thought you’d find understanding, yet (as we can see from the reception) that hasn’t been the case. Obviously, you are intelligent enough to see there is some disconnect, but have remaining bias or loyalty preventing you from reaching or voicing certain obvious conclusions. The issue you, and others here, have been dancing around is affirmative-action (entitlements, quotas, set-asides, &c); and the culture of special consideration grafted onto the simple proposition of rectifying past mistreatment without creating a new injustice. Some regard AA as an injustice for which blacks should confess and atone. It is unfair to whites, yet it was both whites and blacks who created it and now perpetuate it.
One problem you have, in resolving this, is you are an African-American making an evaluation fellow African-Americans regard as race-betrayal. Many trivialize this because they’ve never endured it, and others simply don’t see it. Even so, you have come so far as to note all is not well with affirmative-action, and have ventured to discuss it. Some have thrown your attempt back at you because you couched it in equivocal terms, accuse you of defending it (even to racism), and without seeing how far out on a limb this puts you. Others have not, and I applaud them for withholding judgment. I salute the courage it takes even to venture this far.
If you take ‘black’, ‘advancement’, ‘prestige’, and ‘compensation’ out of the equation, you’ll find blacks still rise to high positions and at about the same rate. The advancement of blacks was happening well before Civil Rights, and was increasing because it is impossible to keep people from finding their true level. It continued to grow at about the same rate until affirmative-action and other “equalizers” were adopted. Since then it’s been reported, the rate of advancement has slowed significantly; suggesting AA is retarding the process. Civil Rights happened because black advancement had reached a barrier that needed to come down. AA was imposed purely to satisfy political clamor and to assuage collective guilt. Rather than merging us into one society, it has created new barriers that reverse old ones.
One impact has been a growing sense of incompetence among blacks. Some whites suspect blacks of incompetence arising out of preference. This is natural, but isn’t more than passing true. I’ve worked with blacks I know to be both superbly competent despite having been artificially advanced, blacks who are perhaps competent yet not greatly so, and blacks and whites who are equally incompetent to the positions they hold. What is damning for blacks, however, is that, having received any small measure of artificial advancement, they come to believe the charges of incompetence leveled against them. The damage this does to black confidence is both enormous and unnecessary. Whether you think AA was ever valid, it is a failed experiment that should be discarded.
Also should be discarded, is any idea whites or white culture is still holding you back. You haven’t said as much, but it is implied in some of what you wrote. There can always be found some slight truth in it as there will always be some prejudiced persons to confirm bias is alive and well. But, it is no longer true enough; nor is it healthy to perpetuate it through constant regurgitation. Our society can only be purged of prejudice up to a point. Beyond that, you’re only making people crazy. Similarly, you can never fully rectify the past. You have to decide that rectifying every injury is just not worth the additional damage you cause.
(continued)
(cont.)
I know you mean well when you encourage young blacks to aim high, yet I think you’ve caught some inkling it doesn’t make them happy. Partly, you are blinded by your own love of law and learning, and partly by your wife’s avocation and your own loyalty to a fixed concept. That concept presupposes blacks need to be pushed if ancient injuries are to be eradicated. It also, unfortunately, implies they need an assist to do as well as whites because “they aren’t as good”. Shelby is as intelligent as I and has more advantages than I and Lickliss had getting into college, yet she is floundering just as I did. Some of Lickliss’s points are on target, but don’t address the elephant hiding in plain sight. Affirmative-action is unfair to whites, but is even more corrosive to blacks and the black community. We can assume Shelby was artificially advanced, in some degree, beyond her competence. The same happens to white students, yet happens far more among black students and careerists with results that are entirely predictable. The enormous pressure to advance blacks to the most prestigious schools and jobs, and to increase black representation at the highest levels, is behind the stories and statistics implying blacks aren’t up to the challenge. There are black candidates sufficiently capable, to be sure, but there aren’t enough to satisfy this often unreasonable demand. The urge to catch up with whites and the artificial means used to do it put enormous pressure on blacks, like Shelby, not only to perform but to outperform beyond all reason.
You have been party to this pressuring by placing too much emphasis on “black students” over just plain “students”. Get rid of job titles, like “Minority Affairs Administrator”, that make “minority” synonymous with “unfairly advantaged”. Encourage all students, equally, to do what makes them happiest, and you won’t have this guilt to bear any longer. Hang onto that courage though, because you’re going to need it.
Comment 15–Thank you for a very, very thoughtful reply. I fear my rejoiner will be inadequate. But I press on. The views in my essay would be violently rejected at a liberal forum. Those are just the facts of life. Isn't it sad that these views are extreme within the contours of black legal thought? I had a conversation last night about uncompetitive students and law school. She just refuses to give deference to scores. She believes that adult students should be to choices. And if they make bad choices, we cannot protect them from bad choices. I think being competitive matters. That you advance the race by coming into the law school grind with superior credentials.
Now you raise a valid point–am I dancing around the AA point? Am I?
Let me answer in this way. I oppose quotas and I have since high school. Why? Because quotas set an artificial ceiling on black achievement? We don't have quotas in other endeavors like track and field, sports, or entertainment. Why law schools admissions? The rationale of diversity doesn't cut it for me anymore. But you have cut to the core with your reply. I sense I am like Justice Souter. I am embarked on an intellectual journey away from my origins. And that's ok. Of course, Souter's journey was from right to left, mine is from left to right.
Comment 16-As I hit the "Submit Comment" button, I re-read your comment about guilt. Does AA produce Black Guilt? Is Black Guilt like White Guilt or is Black Guilt of a different order and variation? Scholars don't write about Black Guilt but I think it informs the growth of rad of Critical Race Theory. Your reply would be welcomed.