Law Schools, Minority Issues

Framing The Grammys, Education, And Biglaw With A Racial Equity Lens

We all have a moral obligation to disrupt the status quo rather than enable the existing discriminatory education system.

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“There ain’t no future in your frontin’.” – MC Breed & DFC

Last week, my friend and fellow classmate Lamar White Jr. tweeted a pale-toned portrait of Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal. In response, the Governor’s Chief of Staff Kyle Plotkin proclaimed this was not an official portrait and accused White of race-baiting. Many others decidedly weighed in and White’s tweet went viral. Time’s Jack Linshi explained why the whitewashed portrait evoked such a deeply unsettling reaction:

Modern America might be a different place if the distinction between a lighter-skinned Jindal and a darker-skinned Jindal was a mere question of artistic vision. But today, in an age of expanded civil rights, this pick-and-choose attitude toward race has only heightened. The decision whether to dissect or ignore the paint color of Jindal’s portraits is but a small yet important choice among larger, modern issues.

It’s about whether post-9/11 airport security unfairly targets those who appear to be Middle Eastern; whether affirmative action is anti-Asian; whether grand juries would return different decisions if the defendant were not black. At its core, what Plotkin decries as “race-baiting” is question of who has the power to decide when an issue deserves to be investigated in racial terms. Choosing to throw the “race-bait” accusation is simply a convenient disengagement from these issues, all of which are complicated by histories that conflate complexion with race, and race with power.

One-fourth of our college students believe racism is no longer a problem today. Don’t think racial issues exist in our society? Look no further than the Grammy Awards. Since 1959 there have been 795 nominations for the three major performance categories of the Grammy Awards — album of the year, record of the year, and best new artist. Forty-eight percent of nominations are white males, 21 percent are white females, 19 percent are black nominees, and 3 percent are musicians of Latino origins. As for Asians, we are basically invisible. Did you know Iggy Azaela has more Rap Grammy nominations than Scarface, Rakim, Ice Cube, and GhostFace Killah? Before this year’s Grammys, Complex Magazine noted, “Macklemore has more Grammys than Tupac, The Notrorious B.I.G., DMX, Busta Rhymes, KRS-One, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Run DMC, Public Enemy, Big Pun, Jeezy, Ja Rule, and Kendrick Lamar combined.” 

But despite winning multiple Grammys, Macklemore recognized and spoke up last year when Kendrick Lamar was shut-out. It is amazing how influential a white male’s voice can be. It is bittersweet that Kendrick won two Grammys last week partly because of a white rapper’s actions last year. Echoing Macklemore’s sentiments, Sam Smith promised if he’d won Album of the Year, he’d give it to Beyoncé. As for this year’s most coveted rap award, Eminem edged out Iggy Azaela for his record sixth Best Rap Album Grammy. Is it any wonder why Kanye West gets so mad?

The Grammy Awards’ discriminatory tendency towards particular musicians is the reason why artists like DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Public Enemy, Kid ‘n Play, Slick Rick, and Salt-N-Pepa boycotted it in 1989. Its continued systematic exclusion of certain artists is why it should be boycotted today. As people become less starstruck by their own success, there will be more Kanyes and Macklemores speaking against the system. Of course, it would be easier for the Grammys just to ban them altogether.

As Macklemore consciously raps, “we don’t want to admit that this is existing, so scared to acknowledge the benefits of our white privilege. Because it’s human nature to want to be part of something different, especially when your ancestors are European Christians. And most whites don’t want to acknowledge this is occurring, because we got the best deal – the music without the burden.” Music award shows are just one disturbing microcosm of our society. Education is another microcosm of our reality and perhaps much more foretelling of our future.

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Harvard Professor Lani Guineir notes “[t]he score on your SATs or other exams is a better predictor of your parents’ income and the car they drive than of your performance in college.” National College Access Network’s Executive Director Kim Cook states “[y]our ZIP code can really determine what your future will look like.” The majority of our country’s public students are now in poverty. The Economist warns that privilege in the U.S. has become increasingly heritable:

[America’s] education system favors the well-off more than anywhere else in the rich world. Thanks to hyper-local funding, America is one of only three advanced countries where the government spends more on schools in rich areas than in poor ones. Its university fees have risen 17 times as fast as median incomes since 1980, partly to pay for pointless bureaucracy and flashy buildings. And many universities offer “legacy” preferences, favoring the children of alumni in admissions.

A regular applicant to Harvard has an 11% chance of being accepted, but a legacy has a 40% acceptance rate. Daniel Golden says “the legacy preference was formalized early last century, in some cases partly to limit enrollment of Jews. Today, the practice often has that effect on other groups. At the University of Virginia, 91% of legacy applicants accepted on an early-decision basis for next fall are white; 1.6% are black, 0.5% are Hispanic, and 1.6% are Asian. Among applicants with no alumni parents, the pool of those accepted is more diverse: 73% white, 5.6% black, 9.3% Asian and 3.5% Hispanic.” Not everyone is privileged, but at UVA, 91 percent of legacies sure have it good.

While affirmative action policies are argued and contested in courtrooms and on the front-page of newspapers, we allow policies that promote the exact opposite to be rationalized and agreed upon in hallowed halls and behind closed doors.

Dean Kevin R. Johnson asks, “In these times, can a truly excellent law school have a homogenous student body and faculty? Can we truly—and do we want to—imagine a top-twenty-five law school comprised of predominantly white men?” Black enrollment is 6.9 percent at Yale, 5.5 percent at University of Chicago, and 3.6 percent at University of Michigan. At none of the nation’s 15 highest-ranked law schools do black enrollments reach 9 percent. As I have previously mentioned, diversity has improved in legal education. Unfortunately, it has been almost exclusively at less prestigious law schools. The fact is our top law schools do have a homogenous student body and faculty. With that being said, are these schools truly excellent?

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Echoing Johnson’s sentiments, can a truly excellent firm have a homogenous attorney body and partnership? Can we truly – and do we want to – imagine an Am Law 200 firm comprised of predominantly white men? I suppose the more poignant question is, can we imagine an Am Law 200 firm not comprised of predominantly white men?

The American Lawyer’s 2014 Diversity Scorecard (223 firms) reports 92.4 percent of Biglaw partners nationally are white, 1.9 percent are African-American, 2.7 percent are Asian-American, and 2.3 percent are Hispanic (while .7 percent are other minorities). Of the 200 firms that reported to the NALP, the percentage of Biglaw partners who are white is even higher. The September 2014 NALP Bulletin reports 94.6 percent of Biglaw partners are white while only 5.4 percent are a minority. In other words, only one out of every 20 Biglaw partners is a minority.

As law students, we have the right to dissect or ignore racial issues in our education and the legal profession. Law partners have the power to decide whether these disparate statistics deserve to be investigated in racial terms. We all have a moral obligation to disrupt the status quo rather than enable the existing discriminatory education system.

Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn. 

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