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Know Your Worth: Combating the Wage Gap
This piece was originally run on ShopLatinx, but they’re currently under construction, so I thought I’d share it here to raise awareness for Equal Pay Day. ————————————————————————————————————————— 54 cents. That is how much Latinas earn to the White man’s dollar. Often it is recited that women earn 77 cents, but that is the figure attributed to white women. In reality, Latinas fare far worse when it comes to income disparity; in states like California and Texas, which compose of the largest amount of Latinas working full-time and year-round, they earn a dismal 43 cents to the dollar. The negative impact of wage disparity reaches beyond the individual worker and spans generations.…
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Grow Your Circle: The Benefits of Being an Active Alumna
A common theme I hear from attorneys of color is the disconnect they feel from their law school. It’s a disconnect I have often felt. While the school never feels purposefully unwelcoming, it’s always very obvious that this is a space that’s not necessarily for us. For most of us, it’s all about getting our JD and bouncing. And because we never felt like that space was for us, we often don’t take the time to come back, in meaningful ways, to make sure the students after us have a better experience. I get why–you have a real job, real friends, family, responsibilities that take priority. Duh. But I fear…
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Why We Talk About Our Struggles
There was a big back and forth online this week about the discussion that took place between Jessica William and Salma Hayek at some like women in Hollywood retreat. LA Times had a transcript on the event. Essentially, this was a huge, missed opportunity in intersectional feminism. Jessica tried to explain how her identity as a black woman is almost always on the forefront of how people see her and Salma (and Shirley MacLaine [da fuq]) dismissed this as almost silly. On top of also making some statements that seemed to imply programs that are akin to affirmative action are condescending… But Remezcla did a great piece on this situation…
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Is There Anything I Can Do? On White Allies & Their Duty to Act
Because of this site, I keep updated on stats regarding Latinx lawyers and lawyers of color in general. We, Latina lawyers, keep staying at 1.3% of the profession–it’s a neat little trivia fact I like to pull out when I can. The other day I mentioned this to a White colleague who was shocked at the low rate of Latina lawyers. And then she genuinely asked what could she do to improve diversity in the legal field. I talk a lot (a lot) about what our community can do, about what we can do as individuals, not because I think the onus is on us, but because no one is…
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MLK Day: On Resistance
I wish this MLK Day could be more festive. A real celebration of progress and accomplishments, but we are facing a bleak time. I remember attending an event in September about DACA and a panelist kept wanting to talk about this doomsday scenario and everyone–everyone–the other panelists, the audience, we kept laughing it off because it was just never going to happen. And now, groups are scrambling to prepare for the worst: raids, loss of basic rights, the mental, economic, and emotional toil of losing access to healthcare, and just the ever-encompassing fear of all the things that could happen. I am fearful of what this administration will mean to…
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Hidden Figures: On White Feminism and Race
I saw Hidden Figures last Friday and was so moved by the movie. The movie is about Black women working at NASA during the space race and the strides they made and struggles they fought just for decency and respect. Before I get into it, I just need to take a moment and say that I cannot even imagine what life would be like to be as smart as Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson) like how is it even possible to understand math in that way? Maybe because I’m always on the struggle bus when it comes to math and science so it extra blew me away, but like HOW…
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Walkout: How Protests Lead to Increase Access to Education
There is a meme going around that shows two versions of Latinos: one is a group of college grads and the others are protesters. The image reads that the graduates’ actions (of going to school) speaks louder than the protesters. The idea being that we should keep our heads down, do the work, and our success will speak for itself. It’s an admirable thought, but it’s wrong. It’s wrong because it ignores our history. U.S. Latinx history proves that we achieve justice only when we fight for our rights. And Latino access to quality education is specifically tied to community protests where community members agitated, disrupted, and demanded civil rights…
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Every Word is Your Word
This Friday as things were winding down I saw a post from a young Latina in college who was being questioned by her professor for writing too well. He accused her of plagiarism (a heavy claim) and specifically doubted that the language she was using was “hers” because he didn’t think she was capable of using the word “hence” in a correct manner. …. The student was rightfully hurt by this situation. And sadly, reading this account didn’t surprise me because many of us have these experiences. Instructors who question our abilities and right to be present in a way that cuts deep; that in turn make us question our…
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Tolerating Racism: The Heavy Burden Placed on Students of Color
A while ago, I had planned to write some posts about things the Latinx community had at stake this election season. Then P-Gate happened and I was like well, that seems unnecessary now. But I think I overlooked the seeds this election season has planted. Mainly it has become seemingly acceptable for certain people to openly proclaim their racist and sexist ideology. Before we had dog whistles and even the Klan had the common sense to keep their identities secret. But now, it’s all out in the open and there are so many that foam at the mouth, encouraging others to spew their hate in an attempt to get “their”…
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The Vital First Steps to Take to Find Your Mentor
We’ve discussed before how awkward networking can be when you’re new to the profession. We’re told so often to “network!” during school, but it can be a foreign concept. Actually, to me it always felt icky that we’re going to these events to “make contacts,” which is often code for “what can this person do for me?” See? Gross. Instead, when I flipped this concept to make networking feel more reasonable for me, I found that I really enjoyed it. It can still be a little nerve-wracking to go to an event, unsure if I’ll know anyone, but it’s very rare when I go to something and feel like the…