Black judges on D.E.I.

NLJ has Black Judges Discuss Growing Up During Segregation, Efforts to Diversify the Profession

• after sharing her story of growing up Black in a segregated North Carolina cotton mill town during a Black History Month celebration in Seattle last week, Ninth Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson said she wanted to make something clear.
• “DEI does not mean a lack of merit. That's a false narrative,” Rawlinson said.
• Rawlinson spoke last week as part of the event at the Seattle federal courthouse sponsored by the Ninth Circuit Judicial Historical Society and the Western District of Washington Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. Rawlinson, who is 72, spoke alongside U.S. District Senior Judge Richard Jones of the Western District of Washington, who is 75. Both shared firsthand accounts of growing up Black under segregation and facing discrimination earlier in their legal careers.
• "I think that DEI has been mischaracterized because all it is is making sure that opportunities are available to all qualified people, and not stemming the pool.” “I am committed to diversity, I'm committed to equity and I'm committed to inclusion,” she said. “I don't see it as three dirty words, and I think we're stronger for it.”