Saturday, July 29, 2006

Another Serious One

Another Serious One

The big topic of discussion as of late has been race and diversity. The legal profession in general is not very diverse, but I think it's particularly bad in this city. What attorneys of color are hired by local law firms leave, for some reason or another. Maybe it's because the city is not very diverse, or not in any visible way, so attorneys of color hesitate to stay / come here for fear of a lack of community. Maybe it's the weather. In any event, law firms have varying tactics for dealing with this issue.

I think it's hard to please everyone. We come with different baggage. If you grew up in a very diverse community - maybe where you weren't even the minority, per se - you might want more action. For me, which is really the only thing I can speak about with any authority, I hate making race a huge issue. It's not that I want to ignore it, but I don't think it defines me. I feel like I'm a woman first. Granted, I don't think I really thought about myself as a minority until I went to college and until then, had basically lumped myself in with the white community. Hanging out with my friends growing up, I don't think I looked around and said, Oh, I'm the only minority (or something). I'm not sure what that means. And I'm not sure it's the best way to grow up. But that's what it was for me.

So I don't care if there is or isn't this committee or this or that thing being done. I think as long as the people are open-minded and accepting people, I'm golden. Of course, I don't want to be the ONLY one, and then put into all the promotional literature. But I'm not, so it's ok.

(I'm being very oblique in this post on purpose because, as you might be able to tell, it's about work.)

Today, I have tickets to the baseball game. It's going to be 93 degrees. Our seats are not covered. Yikes. At least my cousin is going to be here to enjoy it with me! (No, not the original plan, but plans change. As they do.) Must go clean!

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