ABA Listserv Devolves Into Racist Insults

Welcome to the world of SoloSez — an American Bar Association listserv designed for solo practitioners and those in small law firms. The ABA touts it as the “most active” of its email discussion lists on their website, and well, calling it “lively” doesn’t do it justice.

Now, you might expect a SmallLaw distro would talk about focus on the particulars of, you know, running a small law firm — stuff like attorney advertising strategies, getting clients to pay their bill, or the latest in legal tech. For some folks on the list, it is also a forum for your controversial political views.

The current dust-up began when someone who appears to be of Chinese descent (trust me, this comes up again) posted an article about the Black Lives Matter movement. The article was designed to be inflammatory, and contained such nuggets as:

The reality is that the Michael Browns are a much bigger threat to black lives than are the police.

Also this gem:

[T]his movement [Black Lives Matter] is not about the fate of blacks per se but about scapegoating the police in particular, and white American in general, for antisocial ghetto behavior.

So you can understand why some people — who only wanted to get some advice on starting a solo practice — might not be overjoyed at seeing this in their inbox. It’s like when your racist Uncle Louie comes over for the holiday excited to yell at everyone about why Trump is going to stick it to those Mexicans. Except at work.

One subscriber, let’s call her Pissed-off Peggy, decided she wasn’t going to take the original poster’s opinions being shoved down her throat.

I am offended when non-African-Americans are quick to espouse negative theories regarding the state of black America. Usually, their theories are covert racism.

Some minorities seem to relish putting black people down. To make themselves more acceptable to mainstream America, perhaps?its [sic] not going to happen. People will be people.

….

This is America, you can certainly be racist. And I can call you on it and will. Every single time. Other people just delete you and/or block you because they don’t agree with your agenda. Not me.

Seems our original poster makes a habit of posting… let’s say, “off topic” articles. Not really sure the best strategy when dealing with racist actions directed at African-Americans is to start attacking other minority groups, but that is Peggy’s plan. Or at least make the original poster justify his focus on African Americans.

You NEVER post anything positive about black people. Always articles pushing your negative conservative agenda about how inferior we are as a group. Your posts are offensive to many. That’s why so many people have you blocked.

Asian communities and other racial groups have just as many ills as black people. When are you going to start posting about those issues?

You have yet to address the issues going in [sic] China. When are you?

With warm regards,

I love that mad-as-hell Peggy ends her post “With warm regards.” Is it grade A shade being thrown, or just her standard signature block? The world may never know.

Then original poster responds with this offensive bon mot:

Frankly, I haven’t seen Asians burning down their own communities, killing each other by the thousands each year, or blaming others for their plight. Maybe you should write and post about behavior like that. Gather the facts. I think many would listen if you had them.

Sigh, this exchange is going south fast. Unsubscribe before we reach the Godwin’s Law threshold.

Read the full email exchange on the next page.