OMG! WTF! "Street Smart" is a racist term? Chief federal judge in L.A. steps down over racially insensitive comments about Black clerk

street-smart

/ˈstrētˌsmärt/

adjective

1. having the experience and knowledge necessary to deal with the potential difficulties or dangers of life in an urban environment.

   "a street-smart hustler on a motorcycle"

noun

1. the experience and knowledge necessary to deal with the potential difficulties or dangers of life in an urban environment.

   "take the advice of somebody who's got a little more street smarts than you"

Chief federal judge in L.A. steps down over racially insensitive comments about Black clerk

The chief judge for the Central District of California, the nation’s largest federal court jurisdiction, which includes Los Angeles and its neighboring counties, has stepped down from that post, citing his racially insensitive comments regarding the court’s top clerk, a Black woman.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who began a four-year term as chief district judge June 1, announced his decision to step down from the top post but remain a judge in an email Friday to court staff and fellow judges, and offered a public apology to Kiry K. Gray.

A federal court employee for 35 years, Gray in 2015 became the first Black woman appointed to be the Central District’s executive and clerk of court, a job that entails working closely with the chief judge to oversee court operations.

“I have apologized to Ms. Gray, but I have concluded that a simple apology will not put this matter to rest. There will be division in the Court, unnecessary, negative and hurtful publicity, and a diversion from the Court’s essential mission of administering justice if I were to continue serving as the Chief District Judge,” Carney wrote in the email, which The Times reviewed. “I cannot allow the Court to become politicized and embroiled in controversy.”