Tagged: higher-status positions

“Although the U.S. Supreme Court is the most diverse it has ever been – three of the nine justices are women and two are minorities – the elite bar that comes before it is strikingly homogeneous: Of the 66 top lawyers, 63 are white. Only eight are women.”

elitelawyersscotus

Of course, zero [or one  if you count the man on the last row, second from the right] out of the 75 “elite” lawyers identified by Reuters as having the most “success of getting cases before the high court,” are African American. And of course, it is the group that benefits the most from America’s white supremacist system, that are quick to downplay the role of race and/or say to African Americans and other people of color that race/racism doesn’t matter/exist. Sdmh! Houston, we clearly have a problem!!

Source: Jan Biskupic, Janet Roberts and John Shiffman. “At America’s Court of Last Resort, A Handful of Lawyers Now Dominates the Docket.” Reuters. December 8, 2014. http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/scotus/.

Between 2000 and 2011, the New York office of William Morris was only able to identify ONE African American “qualified” enough to be hired as an Agent. His name was Manie Barron. Barron became the first African American literary Agent in the department’s 58 year history.