My friend Wendell Griffen maintains that the George Zimmerman trial demonstrates that American lawyers are still not trained to be culturally competent--to understand how difference perceived in negative terms results in marginalization for some groups in American society, who need skilled legal representation that they can seldom find in a system tone-deaf to their needs. He concludes:Trayvon Martin's death should have been investigated and prosecuted by lawyers who were culturally competent. The shameful truth is that it wasn't. The more painful truth is that this is the level of legal work communities of color, women, people who are gay, lesbian, trans-gender, and bi-sexual, immigrants, and other marginalized persons have come to recognize as business as usual from the professionals licensed by society to handle and decide disputes about justice.
And he's absolutely correct.
