Racist
judges
doing
and
saying
racist
things
is
nothing
new:
There’s
the
Tennessee
judge
who
was
caught
jailing
Black
boys
with
a
fake
law
for
essentially
breathing,
the
Louisiana
judge
who
started
yelling
slurs
because
of
“allergy
medicine,”
and
who
could
forget
the
legal
mastermind
who
penned
Dred
Scott.
But
those
are
all
old
hat.
We’ve
been
due
for
a
racist
judge
iOS
update
—
and
2024
has
delivered.
“I’m
not
systemically
racist,
I’m
new
racist”?
That’s
the
kind
of
line
you’d
only
hear
from
an
improv
comic
riffing
off
the
words
“racism”
and
“Mean
Girls.”
There
is
no
real
context
that
makes
sense
of
a
judge
sharing
off-the-cuff
disparaging
remarks
about
all
Black
Americans,
but
I’m
glad
that
this
was
caught
on
tape.
Detroit
has
a
sizable
Black
population
and
it
was
only
a
matter
of
time
before
another
Black
American
was
unfortunate
enough
to
land
before
her
gavel.
Hopefully
we
can
take
her
at
her
word
when
she
said
that
she’s
recently
racist
—
sure
would
be
a
shame
if
she’s
been
back-dooring
her
prejudice
against
Blacks
over
the
span
of
her
13-year
career.
Someone
should
really
look
in
to
this
not-systemic-just-newly-racist
thing;
it
might
be
able
to
partially
explain
why
judges
give
Black
people
more
jail
time
on
average
than
their
White
peers.
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected] and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.