ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on social identity management strategies related to legal professional's racial/ethnic social identity. A majority of Latino/a legal professionals described in-group similarity to Operation Streamline defendants, while many non-Latino/a legal professionals demonstrated their out-group differences from these defendants. Some of these out-group differences for non-Latino/as were explicit—explaining how their social location was so different from Operation Streamline defendants—while others were more covert or some completely lacking in recognition of race/ethnicity as impacting their work in any way. The differences displayed in these two groups demonstrate that racial/ethnic social identity impacts legal professionals’ work based on who is privileged and who is oppressed by current systems of structural inequality. At the micro level, lawyers and judges who are Latino/a are more likely to experience higher levels of work-related role strain resulting in competition between their social and role identities. That is, Latino/a legal professionals’ shared racial/ethnic social identity with defendants complicates their work in Operation Streamline.
