Book Review - In Black And White: A Young Barrister's Story Of Race And Class In A Broken Justice System By Alexandra Wilson

Growing up the criminal justice system isn’t something I gave much thought to, mainly because as a white man I didn’t really need to. My knowledge of the justice system consisted of what I played in the Ace Attorney video games. Unfortunately, this is not the reality for basically every other demographic. There is a mountain of evidence, both statistical and anecdotal, that there is a rot in every part of the criminal justice system. As the years have passed, individuals and organisations have tried to fix the rot of institutional racism even as the mountain continues to grow. One of these individuals is Alexandra Wilson, a mixed-race barrister. In Black And White: A Young Barrister’s Story Of Race And Class In A Broken System is a memoir written by Wilson about her experiences working in the justice system. Where other memoirs I have read might cover a writer’s entire life, Wilson’s is focused mainly on her time in pupillage training to be a barrister with some time spent before, where she writes about her life in school, and some at the end spent on her time after gaining tenancy. Wilson gives the reader a deep dive into a very specific, and very stressful time in her life, and reveals just how broken the system is, and how hard it will be to fix.

While the main focus of the book is holding a magnifying glass over the justice system, Wilson doesn’t shy away from writing about the racism she has experienced inside and outside of the system. This includes the reason why she made it her goal to become a barrister. She was driven to pursue a career in the justice system by the tragic, and senseless murder of her friend Ayo. He was only 17 years old when he was stabbed on the way home from school in a tragic case of mistaken identity. Ayo was just a Black kid in the wrong place at the wrong time, killed by two other boys who thought he was someone else. Ayo’s murder left a deep impact on Wilson. They were close enough that she referred to him as a cousin, and the reverberations from his death permanently altered the course of her life as she decided to do what she could to make a difference from inside the system. As she continued to focus on her studies and her dream became a more realistic goal it was a source of pride for her family, but a point of contention to some. She writes about how she was questioned by several male family members and friends about why she would want to join a system that negatively impacts Black people more than any other race. She points out that this distrust is unsurprising and firmly rooted in reality as these were friends and family who had all been stopped by police and know firsthand how broken the system is. To Wilson this scepticism comes with an unspoken assumption that the racism is too deep to be excised, and the system is broken beyond repair. Wilson reiterates her firm conviction that change is possible, and that she wants to be part of making it happen. Regardless of any individual reader’s opinion on the state of the system her steadfast idealism, despite even her own experiences of racism, is admirable.

  Her belief is not entirely unfounded either. Throughout the book the importance of representation in the justice system, and in all of UK society is repeatedly affirmed as the reader sees how big of a difference her mere presence makes to her clients. She tells many stories of cases she has managed and in several of them she notes that the fact that she was a Black woman and a barrister, helped to calm and reassure her clients. One particularly touching story was how she represented a man called Mr Owen who had been charged with a public order offence for allegedly threatening a woman in public. Owen was a middle-aged Black man who while talking to Wilson told her she reminded him of his oldest daughter who wanted to be a lawyer. Wilson successfully got a not guilty verdict for Owen at his trial, and afterwards Owen hugged her in gratitude and said he couldn’t wait to tell his daughters about her. To quote Wilson directly: “He started telling me how pleased he was to have been represented by a young Black woman. His comments made my eyes well up. I could see the delight in his face.” This is only one example of several throughout the book. Reading these stories, it is clear that on a more micro scale Wilson is absolutely making a difference to her clients as individuals, but change on a more macro scale, change of the system itself is harder for one person to accomplish. This is a challenge that she has taken head on though, as she has co-founded an organisation with three other lawyers called ‘One Case At A Time’ (OCAAT) which helps disenfranchised people, particularly Black people, with their legal proceedings. She also founded Black Women In Law, an organisation with over 500 members. Whether her endeavours will be successful on a longer time scale is unknown but one thing that is certain is that she doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to wanting to fix the system, she walks the walk too.

  One aspect of this book which can be frustrating to the reader is how incomplete many of the stories she includes are. This isn’t any fault of Wilson’s though as this incompleteness seems to be an inherent part of training to be a barrister. Throughout her pupillage she was assigned clients wherever she was needed in what feels like an ad hoc manner. As a result, she often met with a client, represented them in one specific case or hearing, and then never saw or heard from them again. In Wilson’s own words: “One of the hardest things about my job is not knowing how things turned out. As junior barristers we largely cover other people’s cases and so we slot into the gaps that need filling. We have to trust that other people will continue to support these vulnerable clients.”  As a reader you want to know the whole story, you want to know how things end, but it felt like putting on an episode of a TV show halfway in and then missing the ending. Many of the stories she includes are just a short segment from her client’s life and like Wilson we don’t know much of their lives before they enter court or after they leave. That lack of closure could be exasperating but that is the nature of her job. At times it felt like reading an anthology of incomplete stories with brief glimpses into different people’s lives. While it can leave the reader wanting to know more, this approach is very effective in making Wilson’s point that the system is broken. She is able to jump from example to example of clients who are vulnerable and falling through the cracks such as Layla, a 14 year old girl who was a victim of child exploitation, or people who shouldn’t ever have set foot inside a courtroom like Joanna, a 15 year old girl who was charged with criminal damages for picking flowers from her neighbour’s garden. One after another Wilson keeps the stories coming, and not only of children but of vulnerable adults too with each one she makes a stroke on a canvas that builds into a painting of a justice system which isn’t fit for purpose. Each example is a blow to the reader hammering home the fact that things can’t continue like this, and that change is needed on a big scale.

  I will end this piece here by saying this book is an edifying read and should be read by as many people as possible. She has revealed the failings of the system for all to see casting a spotlight on it and showing just how deep the cracks run. Towards the end of the book Wilson finally addresses the incident which gained her national attention and gave her the platform she has since used in her work to push for change. In 2020 she tweeted about how she was mistaken for a defendant in a Magistrates’ court multiple times in one day. Reading this was aggravating, but nowhere near as aggravating as it must have been for her to live through it. She describes how she was mistaken for a defendant four times in a row in one day, and only one of them seemed to actually apologise for their mistake. She was dressed in a new suit with nothing to give the appearance that she didn’t belong. The only thing that could have possibly othered her was her skin colour. By the fourth time somebody was telling her she wasn’t allowed in the courtroom it was almost farcical how it was happening so much in rapid succession. As a reader I’m not surprised she tweeted about it. She handled it with more grace and composure than I could in her situation. While she struggled, she was able to take it in her stride, but she shouldn’t have to, and in a better world where the system wasn’t in such dire need of repair, she wouldn’t have to.

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