Monday, August 20, 2007
We're at the Green Line!
Stephanie Chen, of the Greenlining Institute, writes an op-ed. But it can be best summarized by the picture. If you're like that guy on the left (it's hard to tell what he's supposed to be), a giant liquor-drinker on the roof of the law firm will drop hammers on you. Actually, I'm not really getting the picture. I guess I'll have to read the article.
Ever look around the room and think "Wow, I am the only person like me in here?" Now imagine that feeling in an office of 200 attorneys. I would definitely get that feeling. "I'm the only person like me! That is, not a lawyer."
The atmosphere is already electric with competition and you can't help but feel that everyone is watching you to see not only whether you can cut it, but implicitly whether everyone who looks like you or comes from your neighborhood can. Ohhh, we're talking about other lawyers. They sure have a lot of free time to be making broad generalizations based on a study of other lawyers, especially if the atmosphere is supposedly electric with competition.
Why, in 2007 in a state as diverse as California, are there so few minority attorneys in the upper echelons of the legal profession? Like all good questions, the answer isn't simple. Now we have a deep philosophical discussion. What makes a question "good"? I can think of a few definitions for which many good questions have simple answers. On the other hand, one could argue that by having a complex answer, a question is by definition "good." Sadly, this intriguing question, despite being a good one with a not-simple answer, is left unanswered by Chen. That's fine, I guess. She's talking about something else. But why throw that out there, then, if she isn't going to take the time to address it? Suddenly, I doubt whether the question is all that good. After all, if it really was a good question, would she have to try to say it was? Maybe she's compensating for something.
Chen then goes into telling law firms what they have to do. If they don't, they're evil or something. I dunno. I don't quite understand where the giant hammer-dropper comes from, but since Chen already implicitly noted that the question is not very good, I'm not going to probe too deeply.
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