Cocoa Puff in A Bowl of Milk
“I didn’t know you were that smart!” This was a comment that was said to my fellow co-president as she told another student that she had received a clerkship in the Supreme Court of Colorado. We find ourselves feeling like a cocoa puff in a bowl of milk in our classes. Unfortunately as Latinos, our ability to succeed academically and competitively with other law students is always in question. Whether they think we were admitted through affirmative action, or remedial programs, our intelligence and abilities are sometimes not taken very seriously and can sometimes be compromised.
Latinos encompass 15% of the population in the United States. Only 2.2% are lawyers. From this 2.2% only 1.3% are Latinas. As Latinos in law school, I feel that our experiences tend to be different than some of our other class mates and colleagues. I don’t want to say that flat out racism exists but we work within a system that covertly and sometimes subconsciously works against our interests. At times we find ourselves struggling to understand why a professor stated certain comments to us, or why the Career Development Centers think that we are all Public Interest attorneys.
Recently, I was in an internship class and I had previously approached my professor at a workshop and stated my desire to clerk with a certain Federal Judge in Colorado. At the time I had stated my interests she was speaking to a Federal Latino prosecutor. At this initial meeting, she was very excited that I had shown interest and promised to follow up with me in our next class. So, as promised, I approached the professor after class and again affirmed my interest in being a clerk for this Federal Judge. At that moment, she cringed and looked uncomfortable. She then stated, “You know… there are some things that you need to know about this judge. Did you know he was raised in Southern Colorado?” To which I responded that I did. And then she continued, “Well, I don’t know how to say this, but I’m just going to say it. He has admitted to me that he racially profiles.” I looked at her puzzled at what that could mean, and then said, “Ok?” She then continued, “Well, he looks around our law school and he definitely believes that Latinos are underrepresented and that our system and classes should reflect the population. He grew up around Latinos, and I know he would love a Latino in his court room… but I worry because he’s a demanding judge.” I kept looking at her still confused as to what she was trying to say, and even more confused because when I had initially showed interests she seemed more excited than I was! Again, I nodded my head and said, “Ok…” She continued, “well I know that he demands a lot from his clerks, and again he would love a Latino in his court room, but I just don’t know how he would react to someone who might slip up and not be a good fit and be a Latino.” At this point in the conversation, I really wasn’t sure what was just said to me, if she had considered me unprofessional, or if she was trying to protect me from a judge that would judge me because I was Latina, and not based on my abilities. I was confused by her honesty and by her approach to the conversation. She then asked me if I had applied for the “diversity” clerkships and what my plan was for the following semester. I quickly responded that I hadn’t applied but that I was going to and that I had also applied to our Community Clinic. The clinic focuses on representing indigent clients in three areas: domestic violence restraining orders; housing issues (both eviction defense and housing discrimination); and wage and hour litigation on behalf of immigrant workers. They also focus on community projects designed to address larger systemic problems. She quickly responded, “Now that would be a better fit for you!” I then explained to her that although I love public interest work, I wanted to focus on other areas of law so that I could be as competitive as possible after graduation. Then she continued to explain why the clinic was still a better fit. I again reminded her of why I wanted a clerkship and that I was still interested in clerking for the Federal Judge. She looked surprised and promised to follow up last week. It is now the second week and I have yet to hear from her.
Scenarios like these happen daily to some of us, and sometimes it’s so overt that we glaze over it due to our hectic schedules and continue on until we can analyze it later. In my situation, I didn’t know how to respond because at some point, this professor might write me a letter of recommendation, and I didn’t want to upset her. It leads to my inability to address an issue within a larger power structure. I am at the mercy of this professor because she makes personal recommendations to many of the Federal Judges in the state.
It also left me wondering why I had to apply through our “diversity” applications, and wondered why some feel we wouldn’t be able to obtain our position through the regular pool of candidates. I know that these programs are meant to help us, but sometimes they can be more challenging and damaging because it allows us to question our intelligence, talents and abilities.
In the end, we all came to law school for a reason, and regardless of where we are we are intelligent enough on our merits to be here and shouldn’t question it. We move forward because we have faced these obstacles before, and these experiences make us stronger and more adept to handle these situations when they arise. But the obstacles we face make some days a bit more frustrating and a bit more difficult. We will continue to face these obstacles in our legal careers through entry, retention and advancement, and we will continue to surpass them and exceed the expectations laid upon us. I love cocoa puffs, and I know that eventually if the cocoa puffs sit there long enough the milk starts to turn brown. Stay positive, hold your head up high, and keep moving forward.
En Solidaridad-
Jazmin
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While the Obama Administration is mulling over Gen. McCrystal’s request for additional troops for the war in Afghanistan, Mexico is dealing with a surge of its own. In December 2006, President Felipe Calderon began an all-out assault on drug cartels in Mexico. Since then, over 13,000 people have died, and over 50,000 suspects have been arrested. That’s more than America’s fatalities in both Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
But Calderon’s War is different from America’s overseas conflicts. For instance, while a rational debate can be had about whether we should or should not scale back our presence in Afghanistan, Mexico’s leader has no such choice. Calderon cannot retreat within his own borders, he cannot cede Mexican territory to armed militants, and he cannot end the conflict by signing a peace treaty.
In some ways, a better comparison with Mexico is Pakistan and its war against radical terrorist elements within its borders. If Pakistan does not reign in the militants that have taken refuge and now functionally control large swaths of land, they will continue to launch attacks into Afghanistan and beyond. Similarly, if Mexico cannot stop the drug violence and retake its streets, the violence and crime will cross its border as well. The similarities don’t end there, though. In Pakistan, public officials have been assassinated in retaliation for the government’s offensive in South Waziristan. For Mexico, this is a daily occurrence. See here, here, and here.
The insurgencies also share a penchant for brutality. Terrorists in Af/Pak and Iraq regularly used images of violence to convey their message, videotaping beheadings, and leaving piles of mangled bodies on streets. In order to get their message of fear and intimidation across, the drug cartels in Mexico commit similarly heinous acts, such as rolling 5 heads onto a dance floor, and leaving dismembered bodies, with obvious signs of torture, in public places.
In terms of brazenness and brutality, there is very little difference between the insurgents in Af/Pak and the drug cartels in Mexico. One major difference, however, is that just across Mexico’s border there are 300 million American civilians. But given these similarities, and how much closer we are to Mexico than Afghanistan or Pakistan, why aren’t we paying more attention to Mexico?
Media coverage of the violence in Mexico is eerily similar to the airtime and attention give to Afghanistan between 2004 and 2008. While Washington was focused on Iraq, the fact that Afghanistan was descending into chaos was not particularly newsworthy. Yet nowadays we can’t stop talking about Afghanistan.
A similar shift may soon happen with Mexico, especially since some pretty horrific drug-cartel violence has already spread into the U.S. To be sure, some media outlets are doing their part, like the L.A. Times’ Mexico Under Siege site, and the Washington Post’s Mexico at War site.
It may reach the point where we have no choice but to pay attention.
No cheating!
A call has been made for all Latino/a law students to help in achieving more diversity in our schools.
Professor Deirdre Bowen, Professor of Legal Writing at Seattle University School of Law, has asked for NLLSA’s help in contesting anti-affirmative action. NLLSA can do so by filling out a short survey which will help in her research. Her research strives to contest anti-affirmative action, arguing that there is still a need for affirmative action, that the benefits of affirmative action are plentiful, and that school’s should still be striving for diversity.
Please see below for comments from Professor Bowen which describes the purpose of the study, and what we can do to help in trying to once again promote affirmative action and diversity in the classroom.
If you are interested in your Latino Law Student Organization participating in the survey, please contact emgonz11@gmail.com and your organization will be sent hard copies of the survey. The survey will also be posted to the blog, but preferred in hard copy form.
Here is a message from Professor Bowen to NLLSA.
Here is what I am proposing to study:
Affirmative action was designed to redress institutional racism that created barriers for people of color in education and job opportunities. Almost since its inception, affirmative action has been met with resistance. In the most recent cases, the Michigan cases, the affirmative action camp found success in relying on a concept called “Critical mass.” The idea is that affirmative action is worthwhile if it is used to create diversity. Indeed, the majority in Grutter embraced critical mass as an analogy for some meaningful number of students in the classroom, without specifically defining it. However, because there is so much resistance to giving critical mass a specific definition within the legal context for fear of the concept being unmasked as just another way of saying “quota”, there is little research on how exactly students of color, the very students who should benefit from it, define it and view it. My study seeks to answer these questions. Are students of color able to give a concrete definition to critical mass? If so, what are the perceived benefits or disadvantages of relying on this concept? Finally, have students of color ever been in a situation in which critical mass was achieved? If so, did it transform the students educational experience. If so, how?
If students would like to read my paper that this study builds on, they can find it by clicking on the link below. My previous work challenges the myths of the anti-affirmative action camp regarding stigma and hostility and finds that more stigma and hostility exists on college campuses located in states that ban affirmative action. The name of the article is Brilliant Disguise: An empirical assessment of a social experiment banning affirmative action.
Thank you,
Professor Deirdre Bowen
Lawyers write too much. Look at the following photography features:
Showcase: Social Worker With a Camera via NYTimes
The photographer is Joseph Rodriguez, an old Brooklyn cat whose pictures have his borough written all over them — even when he’s photographing a nuclear plant in Romania. Here’s some more of his work with his descriptions via josephrodriguezphotography.com:
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- Peshawar, Pakistan 2001. A boy stands surrounded among one the violently themed movie murals that are ubiquitous in Peshawar.
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- New Orleans 2006. One year after Hurricane Katrina swept through the Lower 9th Ward, family drove in from Dallas, Texas to try and fix up their property for their 78 yr old mother.
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- Platra Neamt, Moldova, Romania 1990. One of the poorest regions in Romania, a worker walks home from a chemical plant
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- Kamfinsa Prison, Kitwe, Zambia 2003. In 1999, a Human Rights Watch report complained about crowding in Zambia prisons and jails that led to the spread of respiratory illnesses and other diseases.
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- A baby in Boyle Heights. 1993.
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- Young bread runner holds bread over his head in Diyarbakir, Kurdistan. 1991.
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- Ron Brown Scholars 2006: Marquise J. McGraw, Bronx, NY 2006. Marquise is studying economics at Cornell University. He plans to earn a doctoral degree in economics and perhaps teach.
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- Levi’s Ad
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- Mauritius: A family of Harvesters. Large estates account for about half the nation’s farmland; the rest is owned by small planters, most of them Indians working plots of less than five acres.
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- Kabul, Afghanistan 2001. A man convalesces as his wife looks on. He is bedridden and states that his injuries were a result of a beating inflicted by the Taliban
- Sohail
Officer of the Peace Keith Bardwell is receiving some unexpected publicity this week for refusing to marry a Caucasian and African-American couple on the grounds that they are interracial. Bardwell’s refusal to marry interracial couples stems from his concern for the children. “There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage,” Bardwell said. “I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”
“Perhaps he’s worried the kids will grow up and be president,” said Bill Quigley, director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Justice. I suspect this may be a one-man strategy to prevent republicans from losing the White House again.
In response to accusations from the media that Bardwell is a racist, he effectively manages to use sophisticated, legal logic to conclusively prove otherwise. “I’m not a racist – I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way, states Bardwell”. Clearly, this peace officer has an equal appreciation for both races – as long as they are kept separate from one another. He continues by saying “I try to treat everyone equally” – to his credit, he has refused to marry about four other interracial couples.
To further buttress his point on how non-racist he is, Bardwell proceeds to mention the amount of black friends he has – by the pile. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom”. Bardwell no longer uses his “whites only” sign on his bathroom door, so his “piles and piles” of black friends do not have to use a separate facility.
It’s not surprising Bardwell did not get the memo about the little-known case of Loving v. Virginia. In Loving, the Supreme Court overturned an anti-miscegenation statute – effectively ending any race restrictions on marriage across the U.S. Officers of the peace are not required to have a legal education – much less take Constitutional Law. It’s not like we learn anything in law school, right?
– Posted by Carlos
We’re constantly hearing about the failure of the U.S. ban on American travel to Cuba. For instance, here, and here, and even here of all places. But what is rarely discussed is the Cuban government’s travel ban on its own citizens who wish to travel not just to the United States but . . . anywhere.
Earlier this year we heard the story of Dr. Hilda Molina, a once-prominent neuro-surgeon on the island, who was forced to resign in 1994 after challenging the government’s research methods. For 15 years she tried to visit her son, another Cuban-born doctor, who had resettled in Buenos Aires, along with Dr. Molina’s mother. Finally in June 2009, after years of pressure from the Argentine government, the Castro government granted her what so many Cubans crave: an exit visa.
Cuba claims that it spends too much money training its doctors to just sit back and allow them to exercise their inalienable right to freedom of movement. (Article 13) But it’s not just doctors that are denied exit visas. Just yesterday Amnesty International released a report condemning the Cuban government for not allowing Yoani Sanchez to travel to New York City to receive an international journalism award. Ms. Sanchez is no doctor — she’s a blogger. And a popular one at that. Her blog, Generation Y, which contains snippets about daily life in Cuba, receives about 1 million hits per month.
That’s only about 999,999 more than our blog. No big deal.
– Posted by David
As law students, we have a special duty to use our privilege to positively impact the education of the children in our communities. Several of you will be fortunate enough to be in a position to influence policy, perhaps education policy specifically, so I want to bring the following story to your attention. From the New York Times:
It’s a Fork, It’s a Spoon, It’s a … Weapon?
Finding character witnesses when you are 6 years old is not easy. But there was Zachary Christie last week at a school disciplinary committee hearing with his karate instructor and his mother’s fiancé by his side to vouch for him.
Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.
There are a host of issues that go into zero-tolerance policies and I am certainly not qualified to consider them all. What I do know is that rules should help people make good calls about discipline instead of dictating outcomes that are obviously unjust.
Judgment can be problematic; as the article alludes to, judgment calls allow the biases of officials to enter the equation, which may impact certain groups more negatively than others. But at the very least, those that we entrust with implementing policy — education or otherwise — should be afforded the latitude to avoid an injustice like the one experienced by Zachary Christie.
So what exactly is the problem? Zachary knows the rules, right? He should, and his parents should make sure that he doesn’t bring potentially harmful things to school, but a prolonged suspension is too harsh a punishment for a transgression that lacks bad intent. To borrow from basic criminal law, the actus reus is certainly present, but there is no mens rea to speak of.
A six-year-old boy with a spork is not Columbine (these types of rules are influenced by those types of tragedies). A six-year-old boy is often an enthusiastic learner whose experiences during that crucial developmental phase can have a lasting impact on his life. A prolonged suspension for something like this — if Zachary truly had no ill intent — would be crushing and unnecessary.
Give the officials in the Christina School District the freedom to make the right calls. Don’t bind them to unjust outcomes.
Sohail Ramirez
NLLSA Vice Chair
Yale Law School 2010
Only three days left of Hispanic Heritage Month! Check out these sweet moves:
For decades ruling with impunity was the rule in Latin America, with rulers decidedly doing what was in their best interests, rather than the best interests of their country. But recently it appears that governments are cracking down on past indiscretions, which may serve as a warning for those ruling in Latin America today: ignore laws and trample upon liberties at your own risk.
For instance, Carlos Menem won election as President of Argentina during the 1990s with a rather simplistic slogan: “Siganme.” (Follow me.) Sure enough, the closer he was followed, the more his administration was dogged by rumors of corruption and dishonesty. On October 1, 2009, the former two-term President was charged for obstructing the investigation of the 1994 bombing that targeted Jewish charities in Buenos Aires. Menem has also dealt with several other corruption and arms smuggling probes relating to his time in La Casa Roja.
Costa Rica, which has escaped relatively unscathed from Latin America’s 50-year struggle against economic and political instability, has nevertheless had to deal with a corruption problem of its own. On October 5, 2009, former President Rafael Calderon, was sentenced to five years in prison after his conviction on charges of corruption. The charges, which stem from his 1990-1994 term as president, alleged that Calderon embezzled government funds.
On the same day as Calderon’s sentence, four former officials within General Augusto Pinochet’s army were sentenced for their role in illegal arms shipments to Croatia during the 1990s crisis in the Balkans.
The best counter example may be the situation in Honduras. We may never really know what happened behind the scenes in Tegucigalpa, or who is more to blame, ousted ex-President Manuel Zalaya, or interim President Roberto Micheletti. Even then, what we do know is that Honduran army’s action — whether you call it a coup or a legal regime change — continues to spark protests from within the country, as well as pressure from without.
Does this signal a new era of accountability in Latin America?
During the 2009 NLLSA Conference in Chicago, hosted by DePaul University, a new NLLSA Board was elected.
| POSITION | NAME | SCHOOL |
| Chair | David Perez | Yale |
| Vice-Chair | Sohail Ramirez | Yale |
| Treasusrer | Jazmin Chavez | Denver Univ. |
| Secretary | Brenda Montes | UCLA |
| Communtiy Service | Mariza Garza | Texas |
| Public Relations | George Cisneros | Columbia |
| Attorney General | Alex Uballez | Columbia |
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REGIONAL DIRECTORS: |
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| Pacific Region | Juan Carlos Gonzalez | UCLA |
| Northwest Region | Emily Gonzalez | Seattle |
| Maria Bocanegra | Seattle | |
| Mountain Region | Nicanor Pesina | Texas |
| Central Region | Larry Banda | Loyola (Chicago) |
| Southeast Region | Barbara Barreno | Vanderbilt |
| Mid Atlantic Region | Amanda Zubiate | Howard Law |
| North Atlantic Region | Carel Ale | Yale |
We look forward to working together as a Board, and together with our members to make 2009-2010 a successful year for our organization!
Please email me at chair@nllsa.org or visit our website at www.nllsa.org to learn more about the National Latino/a Law Students Association and how you can be involved in our National Organization.
Thanks,
David Perez
NLLSA Chair
Yale Law School 2010
