Eli Stone
Eli Stone

Episode Report Card
Couch Baron: B+ | 463 USERS: C+
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I Hate Sassy Patti

Andrews is on the stand talking about how he graduated number one in his class at Harvard Law. ["So did everyone else on TV who went to Harvard Law. What else you got." -- Sars] However, when he went on his first job interview, he overheard the men he had just talked to joking that "letting a Negro into Harvard was like teaching a donkey to ice skate." Gross. He pointedly adds, with a look in Keith's direction, "That's not being hired because of your race." Matt asks if that's why Andrews started his own firm, and the answer is yes, and Andrews adds that his hiring practices are the most diverse in the country. Matt then has a bunch of people in the room stand, and it happens that they're associates at Andrews's firm. Andrews informs us that that's not all of them -- "the others had better things to do than to help defend me this afternoon." Most of the associates laugh, but this one guy on the end is practically scowling, all, "What he just said isn't exactly complimentary toward us, morons."

It's now Keith's turn, and he asks Andrews if he ever wore his hair in an afro or cornrows or anything like that. This line goes on for some time, with Keith's position obviously being that Andrews discriminates against blacks who are unwilling to try to pass, to a certain extent, and Andrews simply countering that he has a right to make his own judgment calls on whether to hire anyone. Keith presses the point, though, picking out a black man whose physical appearance is roughly similar to that of Andrews and asking if he was, say, salutatorian at Harvard, as Keith was. Jordan seems to be dismayed by this line of questioning, as if it's now hitting him that Keith might have a point about his friend. Keith gets a little fiery here, though, when he points out that the associate is lighter-skinned than he is, prompting Jordan to object and the judge to tell Keith to settle down, but he's successfully stirred Andrews's ire, and Andrews seethes that he hates it when black men use their race "as an excuse for shiftless behavior." As Jordan and Matt cringe, Andrews goes on that he's seen Keith's attitude in other black men, who use their race to justify "a certain kind of arrogance, as if the rules that apply to the rest of us don't apply to them. If I am prejudiced against anything, it's that kind of arrogance." Keith sums it up: The day they had lunch, Andrews wasn't eating with a great lawyer, but a black punk with an unkempt afro. "No wonder you left early." This case is far more interesting than any of Eli's, I have to say. Is it too late to rename the show "The Jordan Family," like what they did with Valerie?

Eli Stone

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