One of two major law firms sued for running segregated training programs backs down
Gadsden Flag – a symbol of unbowing defiance to oppression
Bring a gun to a knife fight: Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in June that racial quotas and affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional, the non-profit legal firm the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAFER) sued two different major law firms, Perkins Coie in Dallas and Morrison & Foerster in Miami, accusing both of illegal discrimination in their segregrated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training programs that specifically excluded whites and asians.
Perkins Coie, founded in Seattle, offers “diversity fellowships” that provide stipends of $15,000 to $25,000 and paid positions as summer associates, a position that at major law firms can lead to full-time jobs with six-figure salaries. Applicants must belong to “a group historically underrepresented in the legal profession, including students of color, students who identify as LGBTQ+, and students with disabilities,” according to Perkins Coie, which employs more than 1,200 lawyers in the United States and Asia.
Morrison & Foerster, a corporate law firm founded in San Francisco that has more than 1,000 lawyers worldwide, has a similar program that is open to applicants who are Black, Hispanic, Native American or members of the LGBT community. The fellowship consists of a paid summer-associate position and a $50,000 stipend.
Now, only eight days after the lawsuit was filed, one of these law firms, Morrison & Foerster, has backed down, at least superficially, by eliminating in its applications any mention of race or sexual orientation.
The fellowship is now open to all law students with a “demonstrated commitment to promoting diversity” who “bring a diverse perspective to the firm.”
“The capitulation suggests that Morrison & Foerster, one of the country’s top law firms, is unwilling to go through the hassle of defending its race-based initiatives now that the legal winds have shifted. A day after the High Court’s decision, Morrison advised clients to take stock of their diversity programs and eliminate ‘unlawful preferences’ like ‘quotas or set asides,’” The Washington Free Beacon reported.
Though this seems like a victory, we must remember that the law firm could still maintain its discriminatiory practices by simply interviewing applicants and then only picking those that fit the race and sexual orientations preferrred. To prove this practice is much harder, and will require later evidence showing the programs continued to limit membership to only some races and groups.
The other law firm, Perkins Coie, has however not changed anything, and appears willing to fight this case to the Supreme Court.
What is most disturbing about this story and the many other similar segregated programs that now exist in academia and corporate America is the nonchalant way so many Americans now see nothing wrong with favoring people based solely on superficial aspects like race and ancestry. It is as if the lessons taught by the civil rights movement and then practiced diligently during last seven decades have all vanished, in an eyeblink.
That the battle must be fought again is no surprise, as each generation needs to relearn these same lessons. As Ronald Reagan said,
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
What is disturbing is the speed in which these principles have been lost. Though this bigotry has been growing slowly for decades in the academic community, with its various studies programs focused solely on race and ethnicity and sex, its application to the general culture only burst out with unbelievable power and force in 2020, after the unfortunate death of George Floyd. It was as if a plug had been removed from the dike, and the bigotry poured forth to overwhelm everything.
The result: That poison is once again very pervasive in American society, and it will take decades of hard work and sacrifices to excise it out again. We are only beginning, so the battles now are the hardest.
To help the fight, there are now numerous non-profit legal firms available to defend all the civil rights outlined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I maintain such a list, which can be found here. I have also now added AAFER to it.
Those firms are all winning battles, one by one. Use them. Support them. Help them become the antidote to the poison of bigotry and censorship that now pervades America.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Gadsden Flag – a symbol of unbowing defiance to oppression
Bring a gun to a knife fight: Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in June that racial quotas and affirmative action in college admissions was unconstitutional, the non-profit legal firm the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAFER) sued two different major law firms, Perkins Coie in Dallas and Morrison & Foerster in Miami, accusing both of illegal discrimination in their segregrated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training programs that specifically excluded whites and asians.
Perkins Coie, founded in Seattle, offers “diversity fellowships” that provide stipends of $15,000 to $25,000 and paid positions as summer associates, a position that at major law firms can lead to full-time jobs with six-figure salaries. Applicants must belong to “a group historically underrepresented in the legal profession, including students of color, students who identify as LGBTQ+, and students with disabilities,” according to Perkins Coie, which employs more than 1,200 lawyers in the United States and Asia.
Morrison & Foerster, a corporate law firm founded in San Francisco that has more than 1,000 lawyers worldwide, has a similar program that is open to applicants who are Black, Hispanic, Native American or members of the LGBT community. The fellowship consists of a paid summer-associate position and a $50,000 stipend.
Now, only eight days after the lawsuit was filed, one of these law firms, Morrison & Foerster, has backed down, at least superficially, by eliminating in its applications any mention of race or sexual orientation.
The fellowship is now open to all law students with a “demonstrated commitment to promoting diversity” who “bring a diverse perspective to the firm.”
“The capitulation suggests that Morrison & Foerster, one of the country’s top law firms, is unwilling to go through the hassle of defending its race-based initiatives now that the legal winds have shifted. A day after the High Court’s decision, Morrison advised clients to take stock of their diversity programs and eliminate ‘unlawful preferences’ like ‘quotas or set asides,’” The Washington Free Beacon reported.
Though this seems like a victory, we must remember that the law firm could still maintain its discriminatiory practices by simply interviewing applicants and then only picking those that fit the race and sexual orientations preferrred. To prove this practice is much harder, and will require later evidence showing the programs continued to limit membership to only some races and groups.
The other law firm, Perkins Coie, has however not changed anything, and appears willing to fight this case to the Supreme Court.
What is most disturbing about this story and the many other similar segregated programs that now exist in academia and corporate America is the nonchalant way so many Americans now see nothing wrong with favoring people based solely on superficial aspects like race and ancestry. It is as if the lessons taught by the civil rights movement and then practiced diligently during last seven decades have all vanished, in an eyeblink.
That the battle must be fought again is no surprise, as each generation needs to relearn these same lessons. As Ronald Reagan said,
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
What is disturbing is the speed in which these principles have been lost. Though this bigotry has been growing slowly for decades in the academic community, with its various studies programs focused solely on race and ethnicity and sex, its application to the general culture only burst out with unbelievable power and force in 2020, after the unfortunate death of George Floyd. It was as if a plug had been removed from the dike, and the bigotry poured forth to overwhelm everything.
The result: That poison is once again very pervasive in American society, and it will take decades of hard work and sacrifices to excise it out again. We are only beginning, so the battles now are the hardest.
To help the fight, there are now numerous non-profit legal firms available to defend all the civil rights outlined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I maintain such a list, which can be found here. I have also now added AAFER to it.
Those firms are all winning battles, one by one. Use them. Support them. Help them become the antidote to the poison of bigotry and censorship that now pervades America.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
LGBTQ+ has been historically underrepresented in the legal profession? Roy Cohn would like a word with you.
This case involved large law firms.
How many of theses racially discriminatory training, development and “talent” programs are in the corporate world. Is Google/Alphabet free of discrimination and favoritism? How about Meta? Walmart?
I sincerely doubt it.
Would be worthwhile for someone to put together a db of all the discriminatory programs in a place that Woke Big Tech can’t shut it down.
Maybe this is a use case for an X(Twitter) shared db…
Merit is the only standard that should apply.
If you or a loved one needed brain surgery to remove a life threatening tumor would you choose a surgeon who met the Diversity, Inclusion and whatever standard or would you want the best possible surgeon regardless of any other factor?
Same question on every other issue that’s important to you.
Robert wrote: “What is disturbing is the speed in which these principles have been lost.”
Disturbing, but not surprising. A century ago, the Democrats consciously chose to use the slow, Fabian method of changing America into a Marxist nation, the popular experiment at the time. By 1912, Fabian Socialism was a popular idea. Its teaching was that changing to Marxism suddenly (as Russia would do just after The War to end All Wars) was too shocking for free peoples, and the frog would have to be boiled by slowly warming the water to a boil.*
Marxism was the only fair way to run the world, because everyone was to be treated the same and to have all the same stuff. No matter what opportunity you were offered, your outcome would be the same as everyone else’s. That was the promise.
Obama abandoned the slow boiling of the frog, because the water had been heated for a century, and he believed that America was now ready for a sudden change to fairness.** Or what Obama thinks is fair. It looks like Obama was right about the sudden change, not about the fairness.
The speed should not be surprising, as Obama sped up the process, turned up the heat. What is surprising is how much slower it is than Obama thought it would go. Twice, Obama tried to set up Departments Of Rat-Out-Your-Neighbor, and twice he failed. It is taking longer than Obama thought for the water to come to a boil. The Democrats have even tried to set up a Ministry Of Truth (Department of Disinformation, ruling on what cannot be said, because false statements are no longer allowed in nations of free speech). Although this could not be done officially, the FBI and others have done something similar with social media companies and with the Human Resources departments of other companies. This is the brilliance of the Hate Crime and of Hate Speech. They can now be used to help boil the frog.
_____________
* Being cold blooded, frogs have no thermal regulation and do not feel hot overall. They still can feel that an object is hot, because they have the nerves that can determine whether heat is flowing into or out of its skin. Thus, if you put a frog into boiling water, he feels the hot water and knows to escape, but if you slowly, slowly heat the water, he does not feel as though he needs to cool his body, the way we warm blooded creatures do, and he will not know that the water around him is getting too hot.
The Russians were an oppressed people, so they could not see how Marxism could be worse for them than the Czars, especially with the promise that they would be living like the nobility, even living in their houses (which they did, just not living as well as the previous occupants).
** What is fair? Is it fair that one person has more and another person has less? Is it fair that one person works hard for his reward (pay) and another person does not put in as much work, yet receives the same rewards, too?*** Is it fair that one person does all the work and the other sits around and plays X-Box all day, living off his welfare check? Is it fair that both people have X-Boxes, but only one has the time to play his? Is it fair that the hard worker gets frustrated that he works hard yet still is unable to live the life of Riley, like his X-Box-playing, do-nothing neighbor gets to live?
*** This is why Marx thought that the feudal system that he was born into was unfair. People born to nobility, like himself, lived a good life, but people born to serfdom dug ditches for a living. Was that fair? Was it fair that the amount of work and the amount of luxury resulted from the luck of birth and were not related? The person who dug ditches worked hard, but his reward was not a luxurious lifestyle. The nobleman or the business owner**** did not put in physical labor at all, yet they lived the life of Riley. Was it fair that the business owner put in all the risk and did all the work to start and run a company but the guy who dug ditches should get the same reward?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bSZjYRpaktI (1 minute, Who Should Own the Means of Production?)
The manager can get another ditch digger, but can the ditch digger get another manager? One person has valuable skills that can result in the employment of a whole lot of people, and the other does not.
**** Marx saw business owners running their own companies and confused ownership with management. The owner was the manager. These days, the days of stock markets, owners pool their resources to own companies and hire managers to run them. The owner is not necessarily the manager. Marx’s system of everyone owning everything (thus no one owned anything) fails to make everyone wealthy enough to live the life of Riley. Instead, the managers are still the ones who make the decisions, and they are able to siphon off wealth for their own use. The worker still earns a wage, but he still does not benefit from the profits of the company that he theoretically partly owns. As Orwell pointed out, under Marxism, everyone is equal, but some people are more equal than others.
The free market capitalist system rewards the risk taker, the hard worker, the smart worker, and the inventor. It rewards the people who add value to the economy, the ones who add strength to the community. The worker is even able to buy stock in the company and share in its profits. That is how capitalism works. (I still own a small portion of a company that I used to work for.)