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Our Professor @_lesliethomas QC is speaking at @TheInnerTemple's event 'What Does It Mean to Be Anti-Racist in a Profession Full of Privileged People?'
Our Professor @_lesliethomas QC is speaking at @TheInnerTemple's event 'What Does It Mean to Be Anti-Racist in a Profession Full of Privileged People?'
"Let me tell you a story. As I walked down the corridor I saw the usher for my court. I approached her to ask whether I was in the right place. With a dismissiveness she said to me, Court isn’t open, you have to wait until your case is called on...
...I said ‘excuse me madam I would like to go into court before the case is called on so I could get ready’. She said you can’t do that, only the lawyers and the judge go into court early. I realised to my horror she had only seen me, I presumed, by the colour of my skin...
...I then said to her, ‘Madam, I’m not the client’. She looked at me, this time a bit more closely and said to me, are you family or a witness’. ‘No madam’ I replied. ‘Are you the solicitor’s clerk’ I again patiently replied no I was not...
...I then nodded down to my wig, which was sitting on top of the papers I had been holding all this time and said 'I’m the barrister'. The look on her face said it all, she was shocked and surprised, and in fairness to her very apologetic."
"Firstly, we have to have some understanding that our history & system of laws defended a tyrannical Empire for many hundreds of years, in which human trafficking, enslavement of people, rape & murder of an entire race of people based on skin colour was lawful & justified."
"I believe it is important to understand some of the historical reasons for the differential treatment of black people and why that might continue to this day."
"Even in 2020 we still have images for these racist views today, men of African heritage in their encounters with police are often described as powerful, with super human strength, needing several police officers to help ‘restrain’ them."
"There has been a real discussion about race in the public discourse following the horrific killing of an unarmed black man whose death was captured on video and we see him dying before our eyes and calling out for his dead mother."
"This has led us all to ask questions about race, discrimination, racism & how to be anti-racist. Racism and discriminatory behaviours pervades all levels of society and our legal system & the bar is not immune from the same. Many of my colleagues have similar stories."
"The Lammy Review 2017, which analysed the disproportionate treatment of BAME people in the criminal justice system, makes for depressing reading. Black people are six times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than white people."
"But it is not just the police that have a race problem. It is the judiciary. The Review showed that BAME defendants were 240% more likely to be given a prison sentence for a drug offence than white defendants."
"Black people make up 3% of the general population, but make up 12% of prisoners and 21% of children in custody. Every single one of those Black prisoners, including those Black children, was sent to prison by a judge."
"Interestingly, the Review also found, by contrast, that there is no evidence of racial bias in juries’ decisions to convict or acquit – suggesting that our judges have a bigger race problem than our juries do."
"So does our profession truly believe in a modern, diverse & representative Bar? To answer this question there is a preliminary question namely. Are we prepared to embrace the fact that there are problems? Akala summed it up well, when he said..."
"Or as Peggy McIntosh describes it: 'I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth.'"
"If you recognize that systems and structures were designed to disadvantage marginalized groups, the expectation should then be that those in the dominant group use their access, privilege and opportunity to make way for those without that same access, privilege and opportunity."
"If you believe your chambers are colour-blind & treat everyone the same, then you have a problem. Colour blindness does not work in a system where everyone at the top of judicial power is white, everyone in the ‘best’ chambers is white..
...& the two ‘best’ universities in the country have a lack of black entrants, and the top private schools are predominately white. And lo and behold it is from these ranks that the predominant of our profession and judges have traditionally been chosen."
"The privileges of whiteness are often taken for granted and not understood by those upon whom it is bestowed. You can make it to the top of your profession and yet still be harassed because of the colour of your skin."
"Understanding white privilege, let me add some examples of my own: Being mistaken often for the defendant, defendant’s brother, father, clerk anyone other than the barrister when you walk into court."
"White members of our profession need to understand that questioning the way things currently are this is not about them being individually attacked, shamed, accused or judged. It is about recognising that the system is unfair and we, as a profession, can improve our lot."
"It is a recognition that advantage may well be tied to race and that is systemic. We should forget the guilt and take action. History matters. Bias is implicit and often unconscious. More importantly, it takes great courage to change this system."
Want to know more? Want to implement antiracist policies? Read Leslie's 10 steps on how to increase the presence of Black people in senior positions within the legal industry: http://bit.ly/3jExNMb
