Content Neutral? (Malik Speaking)
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You might think that if courts or other decision making bodies are neutral, no one or no group will be consistently disadvantaged or consistently harmed by decisions. But that is not the case. Blacks are consistently disadvantaged by laws and rules and court decisions. In this respect neutrality is a convenient illusion for those who want to avoid the consequences of our institutions and the principles they are founded upon.

Furthermore, what counts as "neutral" cannot be determined in the abstract. The context of power and privilege must be considered. You know the old saying about how the law forbids the rich as well as the poor from sleeping under bridges. Such a law offers a false or illusory neutrality because it does not consider the different resources of the rich and the poor. The "neutrality" of our courts is of exactly this sort. Blacks are permitted to speak as much as whites, but the power and the resources are all on one side.

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