A recent examination of federal lawsuit decisions found that plaintiffs charging workplace racial harassment prevailed 45.8 percent of the time when the presiding judge was Black. The percentages decrease by more than half when those cases were heard by a White judge.
However, there were only 24 Black judges, compared with 350 White judges, to hear complaints from about 300 Black plaintiffs.
“African-American judges’ (likely) experiences (with discrimination) give them valuable knowledge, perspectives and understandings of minority plaintiffs that many Whites lack,” the study said. Black judges are better able to identify “subtle and nuanced forms of discrimination,” according to “The Myth of the Color-Blind Judge: An Empirical Analysis of Racial Harassment Cases,” which observers say bolsters arguments for a more diverse judiciary.
