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OBABL Links & Resources
A Day In The Life Of…
Dec
31
All the Single Lawyers
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Nicole Marchand is a beautiful 31 year old attorney, who is surrounded by black men–during the week she prosecutes them and on Sundays she roots for them as an Atlanta Falcons cheerleader. Still this aspiring judge does not have a husband. Will the madness? Steve Harvey says not until black women start dating older men like him…
Dec
16
OBABL Q and A with Elie Mystal
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Will Lim and Elie Mystal
Earlier today I wrote about my impressions of the popular legal blog, Above The Law. Now, ATL’s editor-in-chief, Elie Mystal, weighs in on the discussion by participating in an OBABL Q and A.
OBABL: Would you share your general impressions regarding comments generated on posts that contain an African American component?
ELIE: In every post, there are a small minority of people who want to seek to say the most negative and hurtful things they can imagine. If it’s a post involving women, the sexist comments rain down. If it’s a post about gays the homophobes are out in force. The comments when we talk about an African-American or an African-American issue are sadly predictable, but the goal is the same. Some people just want to say that most hurtful thing possible. Every site that allows anonymous commentary has to deal with this at some level.
OBABL: I’d like for you to share your thoughts and feelings regarding the change in tone of comments directed at you before and after your identity was disclosed. I followed the ATL IDOL competition closely. You were the runaway favorite, but this seemed less so once you posted your picture.
ELIE: The change in tone was entirely predictable to me and every “black/white/other” friend I have. During the competition, my friends and I joked about how race would suddenly play a role in the negativity directed at me if I won the competition. But let’s not forget that I’ve been black “all my life.” I learned a long, long time ago to detach my feelings of self-worth and accomplishment from the prejudiced perspective of a minority of people. My mother was born in 1950 in the heart of Mississippi. She dealt with a brand of racism I still can’t fully comprehend. I deal with a couple of idiots who want to hurt my feelings. I try to keep that perspective as I go about my day.
OBABL: Please share with me your perspective on the BLSA flap.
ELIE: It reminded me that absolute racial tolerance and equality is actually an unattainable goal that people from all walks of life have to work towards everyday. It always bothers me when a person (black or white) says “I’m not prejudiced,” because the minute you feel like that is the minute you stop trying to be even more tolerant and open to new ways of understanding an issue. The best a person can hope for is to not let prejudice influence the decision right in front of them. You do your best and then you move on to the next decision. It’s an ongoing, daily, largely internal struggle.
That said, that internal struggle is exhausting and everybody makes mistakes from time to time. That’s what happened here. I make mistakes all the time. All you can do is try to learn from them and move on. Based on the BLSA president’s apology, I think that is what she is doing. If everybody handled their mistakes like she has, we would all make even more progress.
OBABL: What advice would you offer to minorities working in racially tense environments?
ELIE: Ha. If I had a great answer for that question I’d spend the rest of my life trying to get the message out. My thoughts on this are always evolving: as I get older, as I experience more successes and failures, as I get more jaded, as Obama wins Indiana …I think that the one thing that has been relatively consistent is that I’m not “afraid” of both being black and being in a professional environment. I don’t try to “act white” or “act black” or pretend that race has never played a factor in my life or suggest that I’ve been a victim of the worst kinds of oppression. I’m the sum of all my experiences, and being a minority is part — though not necessarily the most important part — of those experiences. I try my best and don’t suffer fools. Hopefully that will work. Read more
Nov
9
A Public Defender (Plea Bargain Assembly Line)
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Attorney Arthur Jones is featured in a New York Times multimedia showcase of his life as a public defender. For $40,000 a year, you get a converted closet for an office, mad trial experience (500 cases annually), and a chance to fight for poor people of color. Says Jones, “We don’t know our cases…we have to go off the fly…the potential for mistakes is enormous.” Yet another reason to Just Say No! Recently, Jones opted out of his government job with the hope of being able to feed his kids as a private defense attorney. Those that stay can now refuse to represent certain of the accused.
According to the Times, it’s grim times for PDs and those they defend:
In September, a Florida judge ruled that the public defenders’ office in Miami-Dade County could refuse to represent many of those arrested on lesser felony charges so its lawyers could provide a better defense for other clients. Over the last three years, the average number of felony cases handled by each lawyer in a year has climbed to close to 500, from 367, officials said, and caseloads for lawyers assigned to misdemeanor cases have risen to 2,225, from 1,380.
The Times mentions attorney jokes about “McJustice” and the plea bargain “assembly line” before adding:
The most immediate impact of the rushed justice, Mr. Lefstein and Mr. Carroll said, is that innocent defendants may feel pressure to plead guilty or may be wrongfully convicted — which means the real offenders would be left untouched. Appeals claiming inadequate defense are very difficult to win, experts say.
