When the office
reaches the ‘tipping point.’
By John Ingram
It’s a safe bet that
for many whites, exposure to blacks and Hispanics comes in controlled doses.
Their positive attitudes toward “diversity” are shaped by isolated experiences
with small handfuls of non-whites, often in majority-white settings. Until some
years ago, my own life followed this pattern. I was a “colorblind conservative”
and liked Newt Gingrich and Jack Kemp. Although I was beginning to lose my
illusions, I thought all we needed to fix the race problem were free markets
and “better values.”
That was about to change. After law school, I accepted a job with the
civil division of a major metropolitan area’s legal office, which defends the
city against lawsuits. If you were hit by a police car, for example, and
decided to sue, we handled the case. Incoming lawyers were assigned to various
locations around the city, and I landed in the least-white part of town — 29
percent and falling.
There were mutterings about past lawyers who had refused this assignment
for “safety” reasons, but I thought of it as a gritty, world-expanding adventure.
Like a British explorer, I would venture out where others feared. How bad could
it be?......To Read More……
Face To Face With Race: Part I
No comments:
Post a Comment