June 21, 2006

Stuart Taylor has a nice piece in the current National Journal on the tragedy of the blatant racism that goes on in corporate law firms today. Profiling the great work by UCLA's Richard Sander, Taylor points out that the substantial preferences for blacks (and milder preferences for Hispanics) disserves clients, the black lawyers themselves, and of course those who are denied a job because of the color of their skin.

The case against "benign" racism, in brief, is that it is never benign -- it is evil. When states do it, it is highly publicized. Sander's recent work shows a seamy side of corporate practice, insufficiently publicized.