The fact that women and people of color tend to underperform at professional schools is a source of controversy. Conservatives blame affirmative action while liberals blame intentional discrimination. The extensive research reported in Professional Identity Crisis belies both conspiracy theories. The author spent over 400 hours observing how first-year students are socialized in two very different environments Boalt School of Law and the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley watching how they adapted to different expectations of how to speak dress and behave in the classroom. Costello found that students who were female of color disabled or poor were not underqualified compared with their privileged peers. Nor did the research uncover intentional bigotry. Instead the disproportionate success of white men can be explained by the fact that they are more likely to acquire appropriate professional identities swiftly with little inner conflict. Students from less privileged backgrounds however suffered from identity dissonance. For example Jasmine a Filipino student from Los Angeles explained In the legal culture you have to adopt a different way of being a different vocabulary and way to carry yourself . . . That s how I got this far. And when I go home if I act the way I do here they won t get it. My cousins and my friends say You re kind of whitewashed. And when I come back here I have to get back my law style.