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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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What’s a Weekend? Use Your Break Wisely
One of the things that law school stole from me is the ability to take a nap. During law school, I just couldn’t nap from the anxiety of having something “more important” to do. Now, that I’m far out of law school, I barely ever nap and I totally blame law school for that. I hope you come out better than I did. But for a lot of people, it’s break time and that means a lot of napping and other fun things! Most of us are either at break from school or there’s a lull at work (or even better, you’re on paid vacation–holla!). I’m taking time off before the…
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Happy Medium: Finding Your Voice as a New Attorney
I often joke that there are two settings as a new attorney—one that is hyper-confident in their nascent skills and the other that knows that there’s a lot they don’t know so they hold back for fear of being wrong. It’s tough to find a happy medium, but that’s basically the beauty of your long career—you’ll get taken down a few pegs and get built up in other areas until you feel comfortable in your skills and seek out other ways to improve. But before you get there, one of the big hurdle as a new attorney is finding your voice in group settings. For new attorneys on both ends…
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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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Do You Ever Need to Tone It Down At Work?
“It” being your latinidad? Ok so first, if you’re not watching Insecure–do what you must to get HBO because this show is so amazing! I’ve been a huge fan of Issa Rae forever–from Awkward Black Girl to Ratchet Piece Theater and even love her brother’s show The Fly Guys. LOVE them. Anyway, one of the characters is an attorney–a third year associate at a good firm. Molly has definitely learned how to play the part of being a woman of color in a mostly white firm. There’s a story line (video) where there’s a summer associate, a young black woman named Rashida, who either has not learned to adjust her…
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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…