Words matter. This week I want to use my words to show my support to the students at University of San Diego School of Law who have felt singled-out and diminished based on another’s words.
The words we choose reflect our values and ideals; they define our concepts of equality, fairness, inclusion, and equity.
And that is why, as lawyers, we have a responsibility to our colleagues, our future colleagues, our learned profession, and the communities we serve to choose our words carefully, to use them wisely and responsibly, to engage respectfully, and to apologize when we hurt others. We hold ourselves, our colleagues, and our profession to that higher standard, not because we must do so, but because it’s the right thing to do. That is the essence of civility, integrity, and professionalism; that is the essence of our human dignity and the respect to which we are all entitled.
Unfortunately, our local community is not immune from these issues, as a disturbing post from March 10 on the personal blog of a University of San Diego School of Law professor reflects. The post promotes the theory that the COVID-19 virus originated in a “lab in Wuhan” — perpetuating a narrative linked to the rash of hate crimes against the AAPI community in the United States over the past year — and then proceeds to use vulgar language to characterize anyone who believes otherwise.
After voicing concerns about the professor’s rhetoric, students at USD School of Law received hate mail and threats. This is wholly unacceptable. Many of our local bar associations — including Pan Asian Lawyers of San Diego, Filipino American Lawyers of San Diego, and the Korean American Bar Association of San Diego — were resolute and signed on to an eloquent and well-reasoned joint statement rebuking such attacks, standing in solidarity with the law students.
I stand in solidarity with them as well. Offensive speech, divisive rhetoric, and crude conduct do not set the right tone for individuals who are seeking entry to a profession that is supposed to be civil. This frustrates the profession’s efforts to increase diversity — indeed, it thwarts law schools’ efforts to increase diversity — and it lends support to negative views that the profession often has among non-lawyers.
I applaud the student leadership of USD’s Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, USD’s Student Bar Association, and local bar associations in standing up to speak truth with courage, integrity, and grace. This is not an “Asian issue.” This impacts us all. As the SDCBA stated last year, we condemn racist, xenophobic slurs regarding COVID-19, and as we stated only a few weeks ago, on the eve of a mass shooting resulting in the deaths of six Asian-American women in Atlanta, we categorically condemn both racist acts against minority groups and the culture that promotes such racist acts.
I invite you to provide positive outreach to the University of San Diego students to show them that the legal community will not brook this mistreatment and that we welcome them with open arms as future colleagues. You can follow USD APALSA on Instagram, email them or subscribe to their weekly updates at usdapalsa@gmail.com.
Yours,
Renée N.G. Stackhouse
2021 SDCBA President
Reading now: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study by Fred D. Gray
Listening to: You are the Sunshine of My Life by Stevie Wonder
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