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Call it by Its Name: A Hate Crime in Charleston
When crimes like this occur, I recall a panel I attended in law school where an attorney for a civil rights group concisely and eloquently described hate crimes and why people that push back against using that term are wrong. The general idea is that the crime, though aimed at one person(s), is committed with the intent to terrify a specific group of people. The offender(s) goals are to terrorize with the hopes that the group flees, changes, and/or submits. This seems like a simple idea, and yet people become so hesitant to call these crimes by their name. What happened in Charleston was a hate crime. Any other lesser…
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The Road Map for Creating Legal Change
There’s a poem I stumbled upon a few years ago called, I am the Lawyer that describes the values attorneys uphold and the virtue we strive for; my favorite line is: I am the conservative of the past, the liberal of the present, and the radical of the future. That line is so striking to me because it is so true (and btw this was written at least 50 years ago, so the ideals the author attaches to those terms aren’t as politicized as they are now, imo). Rather, what I think the author meant was that attorneys push for progress, but also uphold the law, which creates a dichotomy…
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Activism Anywhere.
I read an article on an amazing endeavor Latino students at a local university created to help undocumented students. The student group at Loyola University Chicago, through their student senate, passed an initiative where students pay $2.50 per semester that goes to help undocumented students pay for their tuition. Full disclosure–I attended LUC Law School, but not for undergrad. When I read how students, many who were not undocumented, did this for their fellow classmates (and for future students) it reminded me of how we can all make the effort to be activist in our own lives. I think as attorneys, once we start practicing, we often get so bogged down in the…
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Off the Sidelines: Women in Political Office
Did everyone catch the State of the Union last night? It definitely has some buzzy moments, but one thing that caught my attention was a pundit mentioning that this is the most diverse congress the U.S. has ever had. That is true, even though the group looks as homogenous as ever. But what strikes me is that there are only nine (9!) Hispanic women representing us in the House and none in the Senate. I’m happy for the strides we have made, but still have a long way to go. We’ve spoken about the group Latinas Represent and their push to promote more Latinas into politics. I still encourage anyone…
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Latinas and Political Representation
Midterm elections are finished, and after a few months break the big race to 2016 will commence. If you’re like me, you love political season. If you’re like most normal people—you hate it. Regardless how you feel about the systems and parties in this country, I want to introduce you to a new organization called Latinas Represent. A nonpartisan group dedicated to helping Latinas get in the game. Latinas compose only a little over 1% of elected officials, a dismal number. As we’ve mentioned again and again, all women’s issues are Latina issues and often it hits us even harder. So why aren’t we running to make things better? Latinas…
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The Mission Statement
Latinas Uprising was born from the frustration of visiting mainstream internet communities that discussed being a lawyer or a women professional or even a female lawyer, but never seemed to take into account the experiences we have as Latinas. We often hear that women make around 70 cents to the man’s dollar, but that’s actually the statistic for white women. Latinas make 55 cents to the man’s dollar. That type of disparity will create an entirely different experience that is just not being discussed in mainstream communities. Why aren’t we included? We consist of the largest growing minority group in the U.S. and are a huge consumer group. We are…