SEXISM AND RACISM

UPDATE: HEAT LOSE AGAIN.

Slate has this article entitled "Female lawyers who dress too sexy are a HUGE problem in the courtroom." 

Loyola Law School would like to remind its female students to button up. “I really don't need to mention that cleavage and stiletto heels are not appropriate office wear (outside of ridiculous lawyer TV shows), do I? Yet I'm getting complaints from supervisors... Judge A. Benjamin  Goldgar of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois explained that female lawyers dressing too sexily is “a huge problem” and that “you don’t dress in court as if it’s Saturday night and you’re going out to a party.” 

Query: Is this a problem in Miami? Are lawyers dressing as strumpets on the prowl? 

RACISM: 
At NCAA Basketball powerhouse Harvard, the students are complaining about something called "Racial Microaggressions" which are seemingly innocuous comments that have racial undertones, even if unintended. At Harvard, they put on a play:
In one scene, students recite phrases they have been told, presumably by nonblack students, including “You only got in because you’re black” and “The government feels bad for you.” In another scene, a black student dressed in a tuxedo and a red bow tie describes being at a formal university function and being confused for a waiter.

The NY Times article is here, and apparently there is a huge blogging scene about racial microaggressions. 

Rumpole says: there are, in general, two types of racist conduct:

1) The person who has been raised in a racist atmosphere and doesn't realize it. This person thinks Asians make good computer programmers, Jews are good business people, blacks are good athletes....etc, etc. 

2) People who are overtly racist and angry (fearful) about other races. This is pure ignorance and there's not a lot you can do about these people. Eventually their generational thoughts will age out as they die and society evolves. 

All of us make ignorant comments at one time or another.  You can't outlaw moments of stupidity. The best you can do is to limit the effects of racism as new generations of children grow up in a world with no tolerance for racism. In that regard we are on the right path. 

Towards the end of his life Dr. Martin King realized that the next great challenge for our country was economic racism. He was killed in Memphis while supporting a sanitation workers strike. He had an economic march on Washington planned for the future. It wasn't the color of a person's skin so much as the opportunity to earn a decent living that he was worried about. And he was right. 

Today the gap between the richest and poorest among us it enormous and growing. The determining factor for a good life, health and success is not so much the color of a person's skin as whether the child's mother got adequate pre-natal care, and whether the child had access to preschool, a good kindergarden, a home environment without violence and fear. Economics plays a role in all of this.  There's very few  teenagers from wealthy families  who get arrested for strong armed robbery, or dealing crack on a street corner. 

Meanwhile Russia is threatening Lichenstein. At some point we need to draw the line lest some world leader be labeled the next Neville Chamberlin. 

See You In Court.