Call Him Macaroni

Overview

Present: M.E. and Gail politely jostle over planning Emmett's first birthday party, but get into a really serious disagreement over his racial heritage. Gail insists that Emmett is a black child with a white mother and that everyone who looks at him will consider him black as well. M.E. maintains that he is biracial -- both Irish-American and African-American. When Kelly and M.E. find out that Emmett's birth certificate lists him only as black, they enlist Rene's help in getting it changed, so that Emmett will always know that he is part of two families that both love and fully accept him for all that he is. At the birthday party, the two grandmothers come to an understanding and agree to start new traditions for their families, blended and bonded by their love of Emmett. Rene takes on a sexual discrimination case on behalf of a woman whose group health insurance carrier will cover the cost of Viagra, but not the cost of contraceptives. Joe is reluctant to take on the case at first, bu