Replies

The affirmative action admittees at my law school uniformly had trouble passing classes and/or passing the bar. If they did pass the bar, their practice was noticeably poor. But minority clients, unaware of that fact, flocked to them.

In the end, affirmative action hurts minorities. Minority clients who go to AA lawyers are not as well-served as they would have been absent AA.

Minority lawyers who make it on their merits are nevertheless tarred by the suspicion that they may have been admitted with less than adequate qualifications. Heck, I felt that suspicion as a woman, because it was well-known that my law school gave an extra boost to female applicants. Until first semester grades came out, my male classmates assumed that I and my female classmates had benefited from affirmative action. Who could blame them?

One of the stupidest, most loud-mouthed, racist black women in my law school class had the gall to insist that white women were the major beneficiaries of affirmative action. I'm not aware that I've ever earned anything but by merit in my entire life, and I know for a fact that my law school gave no extra "points" for white girls.

Although it was 20+ years ago, when I was at UCLA Law School, the difference in the bar passage rates of regular students and minority students was large: IIRC it was 94% first time pass for 'regular admit' students, around 60% first time pass for blacks and around 50% first time pass for hispanics, giving the school as a hole an 85+% first time pass rate.

UCLA's Law Review was entirely write-on, but their were NO minority students on Law Review (let alone editors) while I was at UCLA, unless you count a couple of Asians.

With only a couple of notable exceptions, the minority students in my law school class were barely able to do the work, even with extensive tutoring and mentoring from other students and faculty.

Heck, I felt that suspicion as a woman, because it was well-known that my law school gave an extra boost to female applicants. Until first semester grades came out, my male classmates assumed that I and my female classmates had benefited from affirmative action. Who could blame them?

IMO, this is the WORST aspect of these types of programs...that fully qualified, deserving people are viewed with suspicion.

I sat on a review panel that reviewed applications and interviewed applicants for an important position. The panel recommended a black woman, and she was hired. The other applicants (among others) started a whispering campaign insinuating that the woman was a quota hire.

In reality, neither race nor gender nor ethnicity nor age entered into the analysis. The most qualified, deserving applicant got the job. That applicant happened to be a black woman. End of story...I wish.

This woman has turned and burned and worked her butt off, and some folks still don't get it. She earned her position.

Minority lawyers who make it on their merits are nevertheless tarred by the suspicion that they may have been admitted with less than adequate qualifications.

Exactly. Look what Affirmative Action is doing to the image of the black professional; they may be even LESS likely to be hired simply because everyone will assume they got there by preferential treatment rather than hard work. Yet another 'helping hand' by the liberals that keeps the black population down.