Law Students

Things I Learned at a Santa Clara Law School Bar Review: You Are Not Inferior (If You're a Minority) and You Are Sinister (If You're White)

Along with many other 3Ls here at Santa Clara Law School (though not as many as I thought), I attended the first of several bar preparation courses put on by the Law School for free. Today was just a general over view of the bar, and though I didn?t really learn anything new, I thought it was pretty well done. We had the head honcho of the California Bar admissions talk to us and I felt like I was back in my first year of law school. In the first year of law school, most of my law professors recommended not buying study aids. Lies! Study aids were and are extremely helpful. Anyway, this California Bar cat stated ?We don?t care about the format of your answer. It?s the substance!? However, everything I?ve heard about California bar prep is that format is virtually everything. In other words, if you outline your answer with key words and sub titles, the grader (who even the Ca Bar admitted spend about two minutes grading it) just go down and check off the subtitled paragraphs noting that you talked about the issue without actually reading it.

Later, as we went through the materials the school handed out, one of our academic deans pointed out many ?helpful? online resource that can help us in our bar study. She specifically referred to a website http://www.forpeopleofcolor.org/ as being particularly helpful. (Don?t get confused with this website.) This wasn?t surprising; what would a Santa Clara event on education be without needlessly injecting race into the equation? Anyway, during a dry point of the lecture, I attempted to register on the website in order to gain access to the site?s bar preparation materials. I had to be vague as to my race (selecting other), but I was finally given access to the materials.

Here it is: http://www.forpeopleofcolor.net/peopleofcolor_guide_barexam.pdf

I was looking for some racist, anti-white man language in there (you know, outside of not making it available to white people generally). But as I began to read, outside of it being condescending (it assumes all ?people of color? have low self esteem; Remember, ?You are not inferior to anyone!?), it was very sane and sound advice that is applicable to all races preparing to take the bar. And then I got to the conclusion. Check out this gem:

We have also had to face a coordinated, well-funded, and sinister conservative movement hell-bent on destroying the gains our communities have courageously earned. We need you to devote your brilliance and beauty of spirit to our struggle. However, in order to join the warrior class of progressive attorneys of color who will drive back this assault, we need you to obtain your bar number.

Nothing more progressive than the usual liberal mantra that if minorities struggle, the white man had a hand in it. Now, if you?ll excuse me, I have to go cash my check and coordinate with my sinister conservative brethren.

Full post as published by SoapBox Law on March 14, 2008 (boomark / email).