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Full-Text Articles in Law and Race
Derivative Racial Discrimination, Kevin Woodson
Derivative Racial Discrimination, Kevin Woodson
Law Faculty Publications
This Article introduces the concept of derivative racial discrimination, a process of institutional discrimination in which certain social and cultural dynamics impede the careers of minority workers in predominantly white firms even in the absence of racial biases and stereotypes. Derivative racial discrimination is a manifestation of cultural homophily, the universal tendency of people to gravitate toward others with similar cultural interests and backgrounds. Although not intrinsically racial, cultural homophily disadvantages minority workers in predominantly white work settings due to various race-related social and cultural differences. Seemingly inconsequential in isolation, these differences produce racial disparities in the accrual of valuable …
Race And Rapport: Homophily And Racial Disadvantage In Large Law Firms, Kevin Woodson
Race And Rapport: Homophily And Racial Disadvantage In Large Law Firms, Kevin Woodson
Law Faculty Publications
Over the past two decades, clients and other constituencies have pushed large law firms to pursue greater racial diversity in attorney hiring and retention. Although these firms have devoted extraordinary resources toward better recruiting and retaining attorneys of color, and despite a proliferation of “best practices” guides and diversity policy recommendations, these considerable efforts have yielded only modest gains. With respect to black attorneys in particular, the tide of racial progress in these firms has moved forward at a glacial pace, even ebbing and receding in recent years.
Although large law firms now hire significant numbers of black attorneys as …