The Wall Street Journal has a piece about the inane "war" over "tougher" bar passage "standards" for law schools that will inevitably jeopardize the existence of certain minority-heavy schools which like to provide opportunity to minorities who score in the 140s of the LSAT and are only projected to pass the bar every now and then.
First of all, there has never been a better time to be an African-American carrying a 155 LSAT. Never. For all the criticisms law schools get, a black man with a 155 LSAT is a diamond compared to the ejaculate-encrusted quartz of a 155 LSAT white male. Is that not racial progress? Do we not deserve a trophy and a letter from Jesse Jackson?
Second, and more importantly, the entire civil rights era was about opportunity and equality. For the state apparatus to come in and arbitrarily set a "standard" for bar passage that just happens to be above a level that makes exploiting a new lode of African-American applicants practicable, the state apparatus is denying those individuals the same opportunity and equality afforded to white students who score marginally better on the LSAT.
Of course, it's really the law schools that would be prejudicial in this scenario, basically concluding ex ante that a black student with a 145 LSAT would not pass the bar in three years' time based on prior data that evaluates students along racial lines. So, uh, WOW, LOOK AT THAT BUTTERFLY OVER THERE!
As should be obvious by now, setting a bar passage standard at any level is inherently racist. You could set it at 170 and it would be racist. You could set it at 120 and it would be racist. You could require applicants to successfully color a turtle cartoon and it would be racist. Why? Because no matter where you set the applicant entry level, law schools have a social prerogative to subtract ten, grab as many minorities as possible, and claim they're doing society a great favor by making academically marginal candidates (in the relative sense) take on $150-200k in debt so they can get their trophies and letters from Jesse Jackson.
And why? Because it's all about opportunity and equality, you see. If white folk are allowed to in-debt themselves so hard they need a proctologist to extract the master promissory note, then black people should be free to do so in equal or greater numbers.
So what if the whole ordeal resembles shackling minorities with the manacles of unpayable debts and intangibly indentured servitude? That just sounds to me like a poetic coming-full-circle, does it not?
Bottom line here is that if you are in favor of establishing bar passage minimums (or LSAT minimums, the de facto result), you are a racist and you are opposed to a fantasy of low-scoring minority prospects proving themselves and diversifying the lily-white profession.
Go burn a cross or something. I'll scam on, and collect my trophy and letter from Jesse Jackson.
RACIST!
ReplyDeleteJust because there are too many law schools and too many students at those law schools for every student to find gainful legal employment, and because high-ranked law schools take many minorities, there may be no reason for black law schools whose students cannot readily pass the bar to exist any more.
ReplyDeleteIt is like Valpo, or NY Law School. In NY Law School's day, it served a real need - of low cost part time legal education, or just low cost legal education for persons who were not born rich. Today, times have changed, and the top law schools have vastly grown in enrollment. There may be no reason for Valpo or NY Law or the many of the black law schools to exist, or they may need merge.
Professor Merritt is correct in her assessment that people who cannot pass the bar cannot diversity the legal profession. Even waiting more than two years to pass the bar, they are racking up interest on debt and are unlikely to get legal jobs.
The black lawyers who cannot pass the bar within two years of law school graduation are being scammed by their law schools and riddled with debt they cannot pay back. The fact that the law school was historically black does not change the fact that it is scamming a substantial number of students today.
If you want some evidence that it is hard to get a job two years after graduation, look at the residency acceptance rates of MD graduates from US schools who did not match the first year. It is under 50%. A lot of those people are just one year out of med school. The residency market for US-schooled MDs is much less competitive than the law school job market, as the overall acceptance rate to residencies is about 93% for US MD graduates.
After two years from graduation without a legal job, law graduates are dead in the water in terms of being able to work as lawyers. The historically black law schools are doing their students a great disservice by continuing to exist in such large numbers, let alone exist at all.
"And why? Because it's all about opportunity and equality, you see. If white folk are allowed to in-debt themselves so hard they need a proctologist to extract the master promissory note, then black people should be free to do so in equal or greater numbers."
ReplyDeletePure gold. While wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes, it makes me wish that people would only see the truth. Instead, by agreeing with this statement, I am apparently a race-baiter trying to keep people down.
Nope, just trying to keep people from making the same mistake I did. Truly. That's all. No tricks, no lies. But since I am a "privileged" dime-a-dozen white guy, everything I say as regards the law school scam is inherently untrustworthy or something.
Good luck, everybody. I won't even say "I told you so" as the truth continues to be revealed. Nobody likes to see other people make huge mistakes.
Well, except certain ScamDeans and LawProfs, of course...
Excellent takedown of the law school pigs. They simply want asses in seats, and they will use any excuse for doing so, i.e. "social justice," "serving the under-represented," "public service," "making sure minorities can enter the profession."
ReplyDeleteIt just so happens that we MUST charge $43K per year in tuition - even though we are at a fourth tier trash pile. But it's worth it in the end. (Now sign on the dotted line, and if you can't get a legal job just remember that we didn't promise you a thing. We provided you with an education and that's what you got. Good luck repaying this ginormous student loan back, dummy.)
The only color law schools care about is green.
ReplyDeleteMemo to all darker-skinned and minority students: If you see white people avoiding something in droves (in this case, law school), then take that as a sign that maybe you don't want to get into it yourself.
ReplyDelete