Can Black Professionals Overcome Racial Stereotyping?

Racial issues date back many generations thus any attempt to narrate the history of racial disparity would lead to a prolonged discussion that is not the focus of this article. And even though slave-trade was terminated two centuries ago the remnants of racial disparity still haunt American society till today. This is apparent in the United States Supreme Court decision of Loving v. Virginia (1967), a landmark case where the Court declared the Virginia miscegenation, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, statute unconstitutional. To think that the highest Court of the land only just ended all legal restrictions on interracial marriages less than 50 years ago, leaves one wondering how long it will take to totally eradicate any traces of the evil bias from America.

I honestly believed when I graduated from law school that the racial battle to prove my competency had finally ended but unbeknownst to me I was being released into the corporate world war. A world, where working as a young black attorney includes seeing others carrying excess luggage of bias and doubt about you. The Continuous Legal Education program I attended recently was my rude awaken to the realization that I am not the only black attorney or professional in that boat.

The program was called “Up Close and Personal: A Diversity Story” presented by Shawn Judge and Stephen Yoakam, an interracial couple who had experienced and suffered firsthand racism in all it’s true ramification. (If you ever have an opportunity to attend this program anywhere please do so, it is highly recommended to both black & white professionals). What really fascinated me about the program were their findings after speaking to black attorneys about the obstacles they face at work. I am sure these findings are not peculiar to black attorneys alone and many black professionals can also relate to them.

The results were broken down into 3 categories: Mistaken identity, lack of familiarity and intelligence.

Mistaken identity: no matter how well dressed a black attorney is, they always seem to be mistaken for a paralegal, an admin assistant, or even a janitor but never for a lawyer. For example, a well dressed black plaintiff attorney was waiting to enter the courtroom. While at the clerk’s desk, the white defense attorney (the opposing counsel) approached her and said “Let me know when the plaintiff attorney arrives.”

Many professionals are probably nodding their heads in familarity with this. A black lawyer friend of mine experienced the same thing the other day, a white admin assistant and her were standing at a booth and a white man (excuse my racial distinctions) approached them and proceeded to ask the admin a legal question under the assumption that she was the attorney and my friend was the admin.

Lack of familiarity: where a couple of white summer associates were going for a concert and did not invite the only black summer associate simply because they believed the black associate would not be interested in the star performing at the concert.

Intelligence: Many people believe when a black attorney is hired by a firm its because of the affirmative action. Thus the presumption is that they have lower intellect than their white colleagues. The effect of this is it leads to their boss giving them simpler assignment and setting them up for failure under the assumption that they cannot cope with anything more complicated. Setting them up for failure because in a law firm for example the only way one can make partner is by showing the ability to solve tough cases and have good billable hours. However, if the boss is not giving the black attorney those tough cases, how can the attorney show partners what he is made of?

An interesting article on this point is ‘why black people do not make partner in a law firm’. Richard Sander, a UCLA law professor, in a 66-page article soon to be published in the North Carolina Law Review explains as follows:

After a year or two on the job, most minority associates at big firms get less desirable assignments and less training than their white counterparts. Many become discouraged and embittered. Young black lawyers leave big firms “at two or three times the rate of whites.”

These problems plague minority lawyers precisely because of the racial preferences that got most of them hired. By lowering the big firms’ usual hiring standards, large preferences bring “disparities in expectations and performance that ultimately hurt the intended beneficiaries.”

Bridging the gap of racial disparity between black and white professionals is in all of our hands and we cannot just wave a wand and make it disappear, we have to confront it, not combatively but in a manner which gives all parties concerned the freedom to express exactly what they do not like about the other. The issue of racism, bigotry, prejudice can never be terminated by tip-toeing around it and acting as if talking about it is politically incorrect. And unless we do something our children’s children will also be limited by the same glass ceiling we were. It is important to acknowledge we all have a bias because it is only through this knowledge we can rid ourselves the various packages of racism.

As Shawn Judge said:

The feeling amongst black professionals is no longer anger over the slave trade or the civil rights movements but more like a chance to grow in their profession.

What systems do we have at work and home for solving racial disparity?