Racism in our judicial system with a sprinkle of sexism

Yesterday I participated for the first time in jury the jury selection process. I did not go into this process overly excited (I was missing an important meeting for work) or with the expectation that I would encounter discrimination.

I live in Gregg County Texas where (according to Wikipedia) 22% of population is African American, and 70% Caucasian.

The initial pool I would guess was around 100 people all who were called randomly by some computer program that pulls residents in to serve. I would estimate that 20- 40% of the 100 were African American.

33 of us were randomly selected by a computer program to appear for a civil case panel selection. Of the 33 of us I would say 10-15 were African American.

Already in the court room to support the jury selection process:

Judge - Caucasian (Male)

Courtroom assistant - Caucasian (Female)

Court recorder - Caucasian (Female)

Lawyers (3) - Caucasian (Male)

Defendant - Caucasian (Female)

Plaintiff - African American (Female)

Legal assistants (2) - Caucasian (Female)

Bailiff - African American (Female)

Observers (2) - Caucasian (Female)

Of the 13 non jury's in the court room, 2 were African American (about 15%). This slightly below average ratio could be explained by looking at the systemic challenges that face minorities creating a higher bar of entry into legal professions.

I was in the first 10 juror candidates a process randomly done by a computer program. 7 of us were Caucasian, 3 African American, a split reflective of the county demographics. 

The selection process was to select 6 jurors plus one alternate done by the legal teams (not a computer program). Of the first 10, one Caucasian and all three African Americans were dismissed, creating an all white jury with the only African American in the jury box the alternate who was the 11th candidate. 

My conclusions yesterday: 

- Computer programs do not make decisions with any racial motivation, people do.

- Racism is a real problem in our judicial system. Its deep and impacts all levels (think about the Supreme Court case this fall)

- systemic barriers for minorities to enter into the legal profession compounds the poor racial representation in a court room
- The power structure remains overly male dominated creating a sprinkle of sexism. 2 of the 7 selected jurors were female. The only woman in authority was the bailiff, all the other women in the court were in supporting roles for the men

Today we deliberated a decision, it was not unanimous as I felt strongly that the plaintiff was being under compensated. The other 5 jurors (all white & over 40) expressed sentiment that the compensation should be at a lower amount than I was comfortable with. Would the decision have been different if there was at least one African American in the room? Or another minority represented? What if one of the lawyers had been female or we had another female in the jury? In complete speculation I believe that the plaintiff would have been awarded several thousands of dollars more if a jury that was more reflective of the community had been chosen.

What are your experiences? what do you think?

What if Kmart became social trailblazers?

What would happen if this 

Begun to look more like this

K Mart has been in decline since the 1990's when they made some calculated missteps regarding technological integration. They however remain in many communities and hold a sizable percentage of big box retail. While the corporation struggles to find a way to hold on one commentator said K Mart lacks anything unique that would bring costumers there if given Wal- mart or Target as an option. An outside observer can see that Target offers a refined middle income one stop shop and Wal-mart offers a bargain basement one stop shop. K Mart cant compete in either of these area posing the question if K Mart wants to survive what area could they become leaders in?

Whole Foods has proven that consumers are interested in product origin and the growing discourse on corporate social responsibility shows that socially we are expecting businesses to be good corporate citizens. Might there be room for K Mart to pioneer big box retail in a socially responsible way? 

I would be interested in such a development and would take my business to K mart over the competitors of Target and Wal-Mart