National Bar Association (NBA) President Juan Thomas claimed in a Thursday interview that black lawyers need to be “the conscience of the nation.”
“At no point in my lifetime have we seen what we are seeing today, what I consider an attack on our democracy, our rule of law, when we have a president that will deliberately create terms like ‘fake news’ and attack the media,” Thomas told the Chicago Tribune. “I believe black lawyers need to be the conscience of the nation and speak out because so much of what our country is has been built on the backs and the sweat and tears of people of color.”
Thomas claimed that America’s leaders need to be diverse and “work to bring people together” because the traditional white majority will soon be a minority. The NBA is the largest group of black judges and lawyers in America, and has made a point of offering legal assistance to those arrested for counter protesting white nationalist rallies like the one in Charlottesville, according to the Tribune.
Thomas claimed that even more important than fighting white supremacy is addressing “implicit bias,” the idea that white Americans subconsciously treat other races worse. He claimed that American corporations and government don’t go far enough out of their way to hire minority workers and need more drastic affirmative action programs.
“I don’t see the intentionality. I see: ‘Well, we can’t find the qualified minority, they don’t want to work here.’ That’s a bunch of hogwash,” Thomas said. “You have to go seek it and cultivate it. Every time it’s time to hire minorities, qualifications becomes part of the conversation.”
Thomas has repeatedly claimed that America needs to look to black judges and lawyers for its collective conscience. When he was appointed president Aug. 3, Thomas told the NBA, “We have to become the conscience of the nation,” because “our democracy is at risk.”
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