Women on Top, as long as they're white.

There's a small bit of news coverage today about the fact that the top members of Governor Mitt Romney's judicial nominating committee are resigning. Supposedly, the resignations are unrelated to the recent flak that Romney's been getting from the Massachusetts Women's Bar Association about the fact that, of the 19 nominations he's made, 17 have been men and 15 of those men were white (both women nominees were white).

Ralph Martin, making far fewer waves than "That Summers Guy at Harvard That Thinks Women Are Dumb(tm)," had this to say:

[T]here might be other factors why women aren't making their way to the bench. He said a disproportionate number of those submitting their names to the commission come from large law firms or are prosecutors. He also said judicial salaries might be another factor.

It's interesting that Mr. Martin (who is, according the article, black) didn't mention any reason that there are less minority nominees.

I think it's a pretty standard "statistic" that there are more women than men in law school now. It follows, then, that the next couple of generations of judges will have more women in their ranks. However, no "single minority" makes up more than 4% of the law school population. Most of the people going to law school are white. Then again, the Law School Admissions Counsel defines minority as African American, Latino, Native American, and Asian American. So maybe there are some people of Arabic decent at law school (Or is Arabic under the Asian umbrella? It would make as little sense as the rest of the classifications, so I don't see why not.)

It's admirable that the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts mentions the lack of minority nominees to the bench in Massachusetts. Why aren't the other Bar Associations getting involved? Why aren't the law schools saying something?

Anyway. Apparently there's a little behind-the-scenes debate going on amongst people at my school about who should be in an upcoming seminar course called "Race and the American Law." This debate was prompted by the fact that a lot of people want to take it, but it's capped at 15 students. I have the distinct and worrisome feeling that the exact people who should take the class are the people that the debaters thing should not (white folk). I think there's some similar politicking happening with the "Gender and Sexuality" class.

I think that the problem with minorities in law school is that there aren't enough. Why aren't we giving more scholarships to minorities? More importantly, why aren't we trying to overhaul the primary and secondary education system so more minority students can start along the path to law school? Why aren't we seriously looking at the way race and class intersect in this country, so that we engender less resentful feelings/behavior from the poor, white people (something that stands in the way of actual progress; vicious cycle).

And then there's morale/socialization. When I was a kid, I either wanted to be an astronaut or a lawyer. No one ever told me that I couldn't, no one ever made it seem like it would be hard for me to go into a heavily science based field, or to become a professional. My mom is a doctor. I always knew that I'd go to college after high school and, once I got to college, I knew I'd go to get an advanced degree. Society told me that, as a woman, it'd be harder but I could do it.

But I'm white. I'm from the suburbs. I'm from the middle class. I have all of these factors in my favor and one day I'll maybe be a judge (another thing I want to do that no one has discouraged me from). And I'll probably be on the bench in Massachusetts.

But at least Mitt Romney won't be governor anymore.