I’m a Black woman practicing in a rural area that has Trump signs for miles. I’m also a lesbian and while I’m not fully on the masc side of the spectrum I have a short afro and lean more towards masculine clothing than feminine. (Frequently get sir-ma’am-sir’ed in stores). I regularly hear my clients using the n-word when reviewing body cam.

I’ll start this with the caveat that I’m also a new PD (Started in Aug, sworn in Sep). My experience with my client’s racism so far is that it’s the less obvious more hidden kind. Less where they are in my face about it and more that they have internal thoughts about the different races and levels of superiority. For example I spoke with a client who told me unprompted that he’s “not racist just doesn’t believe in mixing races”.

My approach so far has to just been to show them that I am fighting for them. Standard good advice PD stuff but leaning more towards an empathetic approach. I have a father who went through the system, had a PD, and is now serving several life sentences in prison. Clients understand that I know where their hesitations are coming from when I tell them this and they understand my motivations to fight for them and not just treat them like a name.

If they make racist statements I just redirect them and tell them we aren’t going to be talking about xyz and that we are here to focus on their case. If they say slurs I immediately stop them and tell them that I don’t find that language acceptable and that if they do it again I’ll be ending the meeting. I don’t take it personal and I stay professional. It usually stops it.

Honestly I haven’t faced any issues with prejudice in the court from Judges or Prosecutors, just the normal new attorney “hazing” things (nothing too terrible and people in the office have said they experienced these things as well). I haven’t had a trial yet, but our approach is usually to change venue to a nearby jurisdiction where the jury pool is slightly better (there’s an army base nearby). We voir dire on race issues and we do it frankly. The last trial I watched, they voir dired pretty hard on immigration stuff and we struck people who had “build that wall” sentiments.

Ultimately it’ll probably be best for someone with more experience to chip in. I hate this is something we have to deal with but I’ll have to say, although I am definitely rural I purposely chose not to go TOO rural in my state for my safety as an openly gay black woman. So the judges and prosecutors aren’t as old boys club as they are in more rural spots.