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Stop SOP has caused untold harm to our profession. But it has also been a rallying cry for EDI supporters.
I know we’re in dark times — but I hope the real legacy of @Stop_SOP will be to unwittingly promote *exactly* the kind of self-reflection that the SOP intended. 1/7
I know we’re in dark times — but I hope the real legacy of @Stop_SOP will be to unwittingly promote *exactly* the kind of self-reflection that the SOP intended. 1/7
SOP was supposed to remind lawyers that systemic racism exists. @Stop_SOP did that in spades. 2/7
SOP was supposed to encourage lawyers to take action in opposing systemic racism, but it was @Stop_SOP that triggered a movement for racial equity in the legal profession (@DemandInclusion) and a meaningful public discourse about critical race issues (@JoshuaSealy). 3/7
SOP was supposed to help initiate a “culture shift”, but @Stop_SOP showed us, in ways the SOP never could have on its own, why such a “culture shift” is both essential and urgent. 4/7
On a more personal note, the sheer intensity of the SOP backlash helped me understand “white fragility” — the defensiveness felt by white people when confronted with our complicity in racism — and why challenging white fragility is key to achieving racial equity. 5/7
So, while mourning the end of the SOP, let’s also acknowledge what it achieved. It forced the issue. It brought latent racism to the surface for ALL lawyers to see, not just racialized lawyers who endure that racism as part of their daily work. 6/7
I’m gutted about the SOP repeal. But I take solace in the view that the bumbling Stop SOP crew has unwittingly caused a moment of collective self-reflection and a reckoning about systemic racism in law. Isn’t that what the SOP aimed to do in the first place? @DemandInclusion 7/7
