The underrepresentation of Black lawyers in high status jobs—those that are the most senior, powerful, and influential roles—in law firms and corporations is not a new realization. The legal profession has been talking about and trying to address it through programs, trainings, and myriad other efforts for DECADES! Although other professions do better than ours, the challenges are not unique to the law. In professions known for grueling hours, low odds of promotion, and personnel practices that push out any employees who don’t advance, its already tough. While most people who begin their careers in these institutions leave within several years, work there is especially difficult for Black professionals, who exit more quickly and receive far fewer promotions than their White counterparts, hitting a “Black ceiling.”
Sociologist and law professor Kevin Woodson knows firsthand what life at a top law firm feels like as a Black man. Examining the experiences of more than one hundred Black professionals at prestigious firms, Woodson discovers that their biggest obstacle in the workplace isn’t explicit bias but racial discomfort, or the unease Black employees feel in workplaces that are steeped in Whiteness. He identifies two types of racial discomfort: social alienation, the isolation stemming from the cultural exclusion Black professionals experience in White spaces, and stigma anxiety, the trepidation they feel over the risk of discriminatory treatment. While racial discomfort is caused by America’s segregated social structures, it can exist even in the absence of racial discrimination, which highlights the inadequacy of the unconscious bias training now prevalent in corporate workplaces. In his new book, The Black Ceiling: How Race Still Matters in the Elite Workplace, Woodson explains that law firms must do more than prevent discrimination, outlining the steps that firms and Black professionals can take to ease racial discomfort.
Join us for a virtual book signing and fireside chat with Kevin Woodson, followed buy a roundtable conversation with Woodson and some of the Black lawyers who are succeeding in elite workplaces.
Speakers:
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Kevin Woodson, Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law
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Lorraine McGowen, Partner, Orrick
Autographed copies of Professor Woodson's book are available.
Suggested donation: $35.
