A recent profile of Judge Judy failed to bring up allegations "that she is both racist and profoundly contemptuous of the poor"

Slate

The New York Times Magazine had a glowing profile of Judge Judy Sheindlin in this week's issue, but it didn't tell the whole story about her rise to fame, according to Sarah Jaffe. "Judge Judy is essentially a performer now, but for over 20 years, first as a prosecutor, and then as a judge in New York Family Court, she had real power over the lives of the very poor," Jaffe writes in Slate. "I represented children in New York Family Court for three years and saw day in, day out, people who had lived through inconceivable suffering. Although that was long after Sheindlin had left for TV, it turns my stomach to think about beaten-down people like the ones I saw subjected to Sheindlin’s performative antics. These people were not, like those in her televised courtroom, choosing to participate for their 15 minutes of fame. Her sharp tongue, which plays so well on TV, caused those who saw her at work in family court to consistently describe her as 'needlessly cruel.' Her show, meanwhile, is usually described as successful because she “tells the truth”—and not because America has a long history of finding it fun to watch vulnerable people be subjected to humiliation."