The president of the Maine State Bar Association has apologized for not speaking up during an association event this week when a lawyer said that talking about white privilege is racist against white people.

Leah Baldacci, an Augusta lawyer who practices civil litigation, made her comments during an online panel discussion Monday. The incident unsettled the legal community in Maine and drew sharp rebuke from other attorneys.

“As we flesh through any kind of discrimination against race, gender, religion, gender identity, we shouldn’t forget that we also need to stand behind individuals that are white, Christian and heterosexual,” Baldacci said. “And this isn’t to say that any other group is less than or more than. It’s just about being respectful to all groups. My question is, how can we perform this introspective look on racism without at the same time proclaiming that attorneys like myself have white privilege and making, what I find to be, racist remarks toward the white race?”

White privilege is commonly understood to mean the societal advantages that white people have because of historic and systemic racism against people who are not white.

Thaddeus Day, the association president, moderated the panel but did not counter her words at the time.

“I appreciate you speaking up and having the courage to speak up in this forum,” he said at one point.

Day released a video statement Friday to apologize and called her statement “unwelcome.”

“Recognizing bias isn’t racist against white people,” he said. “Saying Black lives matter isn’t saying that other lives don’t matter. I’m sorry that I didn’t address these issues on Monday. I understand my silence was a lost opportunity, and it appeared complicit. My response, or lack thereof, is not a reflection of my believes or the beliefs of the Maine State Bar Association.”

The panelists on the call were Acting Chief Justice Andrew Mead and Aria Eee, the executive director of the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar. They also did not address her statements directly, but Day asked Mead if he could answer Baldacci’s question.

“Our rule of law is based upon all persons being equal before the law,” he said. “If our languages and our practices undercut that, we are undercutting the rule of law. So words matter, and we need to start the conversation being very aware of that fact.”

A spokeswoman for the Maine Judicial Branch did not respond to an email about the incident Friday afternoon. Both the bar association and the Judicial Branch recently released statements about equality and racial injustice.

Other attorneys quickly spoke out against her comments.

Baldacci, the daughter-in-law of former Maine Gov. John Baldacci, works at the firm Lipman & Katz, which posted on its Facebook page Friday that it does not share her views. Roger Katz, a former Republican state senator, also made that statement on his personal Facebook page.

“Although the associate has every right to exercise her First Amendment rights and express her opinions, I see things quite differently,” Katz wrote. “As a white man living in Maine, I see it as my duty to listen, learn and speak up on issues of racial justice. We have a national problem.”

He said white people can face obstacles in their lives, but they are not based solely on the color of their skin.

“I am a lucky man. I was born in the greatest country in the world at one of the great times in history. Lucky. Two loving parents. Lucky. But I was also born white. Lucky there too,” he wrote. “Call it white privilege. Call it starting the Race of Life a little ahead of others because of the color of my skin. Whatever. But let’s recognize it. Let’s own it. And let’s change it.”

Tina Heather Nadeau, a criminal defense lawyer, was among those who wrote to the panelists and challenged the statements Baldacci made on the call. She shared her email on Twitter.

“Silence is complicity,” Nadeau wrote. “Silence is a tacit acceptance. MSBA should not be providing a forum, particularly in the way it went down on Monday, to such behavior. Every single person on the panel had the authority and the voice to shut this down and intercede. They did not use their power to do so. So many attorneys I know are very upset by how this all went down.”

At least two individual attorneys from Lipman & Katz – Jack Baldacci, who is married to Leah Baldacci, and Stephen C. Smith – wrote to the panelists to support her. Nadeau, who was copied on those emails, also shared them on her Twitter.

In an email Friday night, Smith told the Press Herald that he has resigned from the Board of Governors of the bar association because he did not support the president’s statement about Leah Baldacci.

Baldacci shared a letter Friday in response to the criticism she has received. She denounced racism, but reiterated her comments about white privilege. She said her statements were meant as a response to diversity training required for Maine attorneys.

“When you accuse a group of attorneys of having ‘White Privilege’ at the beginning of a CLE (Continuing Legal Education) on discrimination, you create no oxygen in the room for a discussion on how we can help make the world a better place,” she wrote. “The phrase ‘White Privilege’ is also, by definition, a racist comment, as it states that all white people are privileged and categorizes a whole race as being guilty of bad faith.”

She also said attorneys from Maine and other states have called her “a racist, a fascist, ignorant and a white supremacist.”

“As a young, female attorney, one would assume that I have had some experiences with sexism within the Maine Bar,” she wrote. “It’s true; I have. However, I have received much more discrimination for being a Republican and for holding conservative values, and my opponents’ vulgar comments clearly demonstrate this.”

 

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