Asians, Minority Issues, Racism

'Started From The Bottom, Now We're Here': Minorities In The Legal Profession

Please welcome new columnist Renwei Chung, who will be addressing diversity issues in the legal profession.

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Ed. note: Please welcome new columnist Renwei Chung, an Asian American male attempting to enter Biglaw, who will write about his experiences and diversity issues in the legal profession.

“Born sinner, the opposite of a winner, remember when I used to eat sardines for dinner.” – Notorious B.I.G.

There is a popular questionnaire composed of five questions going around the internet that reveals how many of the 523 people in congress are like you. To no surprise, I didn’t even get to the fifth question before it stated, “There are zero (0) people in congress like you.” I know a lot of law students who become quite incensed at the thought of affirmative action. They acknowledge slavery was racist, but deny the thought of any present-day systematic issues regarding race.

For me, it is hard to forget about the death of Vincent Chin in 1982, how the Los Angeles Riots impacted Koreatown in 1992, and the imprisonment of innocent Asian Americans during World War II. Even today, we still encounter blatant acts of racism. In fact, I would love to knock out Mark Wahlberg for randomly beating a Vietnamese man unconscious and permanently blinding another – all while calling them “slant-eyed gooks.” Marky Mark claims if he was on the plane he would’ve stopped the 9/11 attacks. This superhero should pray that he never runs into me on the street.

Whether it is on purpose, accident, or some crazy anomaly, the legal industry’s statistics speak for themselves. Here in Dallas, not only has diversity in Biglaw not improved, it is actually getting worse. I don’t mean to insinuate that the lack of diversity is a result of the lack of effort to promote diversity. I do believe that many people would love a more diverse workplace, especially here in Texas. I don’t know the best way to tackle this issue, but I do know it is a concern. Income inequality is the issue of our lifetime, but I have heard law school classmates deny this inequality as well: “the poor are lazy,” “the poor are alcoholics and drug addicts,” “the poor are incentivized not to work because of welfare.” Somewhere along the way, society has developed “a profound hatred of the weak and the poor.”

Warren Buffett has said that just by being born in America we have won the “Ovarian Lottery.” It’s convenient to believe, because of our own life experience, that everyone else is afforded the same opportunity. Many of my peers still believe America is the universal land of equal opportunity. This is a myth; not everyone born in America is afforded the same opportunity. Believe it or not, we didn’t all win the “Ovarian Lottery.” Yes, America has many advantages, but growing up impoverished in South Side Chicago, East St. Louis, Oakland, Compton, or Detroit is brutal.

The media often portrays Asian Americans as well-to-do, smart, and ambitious as well as meek, obedient, and passive. Others view us as featureless, interchangeable and lacking in individuality. Some stereotypes work in our favor, others clearly do not. It seems like many people forget about the Gran Torino type of Asian Americans from places like Detroit. I relate to this movie, because I grew up around eight mile and lived in a house with three families. I think my high school had around a 60-70% graduation rate when I matriculated.

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I don’t find it offensive that people ask where I’m from and then ask where I’m really from when I answer California. I don’t find it offensive when people ask if I had a Tiger Mom growing up, if I’m good at math, or if it’s hard to see. It’s funny to me when other Asians give me sh*t for being too American. I have been called an “ABC” (American born Chinese) or “Twinkie” (yellow on the outside and white on the inside) more than I care to remember. I’m actually Taiwanese, but I identify more with the urban impoverished than I do with any particular race.

I do become rather incensed when I read that Asians usually need to score 140 points higher on their SATs to get into the Ivy schools compared to their white peers, yet it’s all my white peers crying about affirmative action. I remember getting into heated debates with my high school classmates about affirmative action when the University of Michigan’s policy was the lightning rod of discussion in 2001. Naturally, my peers said that because I was Asian I was in favor of affirmative action. I had to remind them that Asians do not count as under-represented minorities under UofM’s affirmative action policy. I simply believe in activism against oppressive statistics like what we see in our higher education system.

For a minority, it is easy to become frustrated with our society. It is easy to become despondent by the homogenous statistics in law firms, schools, and cities. It is convenient to believe that because you started from the bottom and now you are successful, anybody can do the same. A child who grows up with a drug-dependent mother, forced into a gang, or with a criminal record early in his life is sentenced to a far different future than yours or mine. I know many people who have had it much harder than me, much harder than I could ever imagine.

As a minority law school student, I hope to help better the legal system for everyone. I believe this starts with asking the appropriate questions. Are Hispanic, African, and Asian Americans not achieving the same GPAs or as socially gifted as their counterparts? Or is there a systemic issue? Because there is far greater representation of minorities in law schools than in Biglaw (especially at the top), we must begin to ask the hard questions if we want to understand the true causes.

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Renwei Chung is the DEI Columnist at Above the Law. He currently serves as a Board Advisor for The Diversity Movement (TDM) and host of the Charge the Wave podcast — focused on entrepreneurs, executives, and icons who are assiduously building companies, cultures, and communities. Always down for a good story via email renwei@footnote4.com or twitter @renweichung.

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