In-House Lawyer, Trial Attorney Call Out Sonic Drive-In General Counsel After Alleged Racial Profiling Incident
"They have a diversity statement on their website. All companies do. The question is, 'Do they live up to it with the actions that they take?'"
June 03, 2020 at 03:58 PM
7 minute read
It was the evening after George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. Video of a police officer pushing his knee against the black man's neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd screamed out for help, lost consciousness and ultimately died was circulating throughout the world. And A. Shonn Brown, a black in-house lawyer in Dallas, was devastated.
Brown, who serves as vice president and deputy general counsel at Kimberly-Clark Corp., sat and had a drink and a somber conversation with her close friend and former law partner, Michael Hurst. He's a white trial lawyer and partner at Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann.
"I was pretty low," Brown remembers. "I said, 'I'm just tired. I'm exhausted and I don't know what to do anymore.' He said, 'What can I do?' And I said, 'Use your voice. Until white people call out racial injustice, then it's a black issue. But this is an American issue and this problem with race is not created or perpetrated by black people. This is perpetrated by white people. And until white people stand up and say, 'Not here. This is not my America.' It's not going to change.'"
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