{"id":60271,"date":"2020-11-01T01:35:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T01:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=60271"},"modified":"2020-11-01T03:04:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T03:04:13","slug":"what-a-barrister-looks-like-a-young-black-woman-paves-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=60271","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What a Barrister Looks Like\u2019: A Young Black Woman Paves the Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018What a Barrister Looks Like\u2019: A Young Black Woman Paves the Way<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2020-10-30<\/p>\n

Megan Specia<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nAlexandra Wilson<\/a> at her offices in London<\/a>. \u201cMy ability is underestimated, quite a lot,\u201d she said. Amara Eno for The New York Times<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Alexandra Wilson<\/a> is working to change England\u2019s<\/a> legal establishment, and perceptions about who belongs in it, from the inside.<\/em><\/p>\n

LONDON<\/a> \u2014 It was looking like a typical day at the office for Alexandra Wilson<\/a> as she arrived at a London courthouse ready to defend someone accused of theft.<\/p>\n

She tied her hair into a neat knot, shrugged on her black robe and pulled on a white horsehair wig \u2014 the official garb of Britain\u2019s barristers<\/a>, the lawyers who argue most cases in court.<\/p>\n

But once she was in the courtroom, things went off script. In a patronizing exchange that was rude at best and hostile at worst, the prosecutor, an older white man, scoffed at Ms. Wilson, chided her for speaking with her client and tutted at her requests for details on court documents.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it was an all too typical day for Ms. Wilson in a profession where, as a young Black woman, she often finds herself fighting for recognition and respect…<\/p>\n

…As the 25-year-old daughter of a Black Caribbean father and white British mother from working-class roots, she is still a rarity in the cavernous halls of England\u2019s<\/a> courts.<\/p>\n

Her unabashed observations about race and class have drawn a following of thousands on Twitter<\/a>, inspired a book about her experiences<\/a> and driven her to found a community for Black women in the legal professions. Just over a year into her career, she\u2019s only getting started…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexandra Wilson is working to change England\u2019s legal establishment, and perceptions about who belongs in it, from the inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1467,8,23674,10,25],"tags":[31191,850,31193,2640,2327],"class_list":["post-60271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-law","category-media-archive","category-social-justice","category-uk","category-women","tag-alexandra-wilson","tag-london","tag-megan-specia","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60271"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60281,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60271\/revisions\/60281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}