Two white men and two black men walk into a courtroom….This is not the beginning of a bad joke but rather the start of a true story about implicit bias. I was honored to be judging in the final tournament of a national mock-trial competition. In the mock-trial the plaintiff and the defendant each had two attorneys: one white attorney and one black attorney. As each spoke, I judged them on pre-set criteria like use of case law, presentation, questions to the witnesses, and handling the judges questions. At the end, I ranked the attorneys. Relying on my general impressions…
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