First day of work– I wake up 95 mins before I need to get to work. Prepared my lunch the night before, so get out of the apartment at 9:05am– 55 minutes to get to the office. I open Google Maps as I exit the building, but I’m confused. The route I memorized before going to bed just 10 hours prior is now not showing up, instead I have to take the F train. I end up taking the wrong train– I’m now further downtown, but was supposed to go two stops uptown.
I rush to the right platform and eventually make my way to the building where Flo, the doorwoman greets me. I hurry up the elevator right as the clock on my phone shows it’s 10 ‘o clock and rush to the back room where I’m told the interns are already meeting with Jennifer (yikes, this means I’m late).
My first week here in New York has been just like this; I plan something down to the minute, and everything switches up on me. And from each shake-up, I’ve learned something important. There are constantly new experiences to navigate, and nothing is what I expect it to be… it’s better. In eight days, I feel like I have a year’s worth of important experiences. I tend to talk abstractly, so let me give a few examples of moments that stuck with me.
“I mean, it was just a joke.”
One night, my suite mates and I decided to spontaneously venture to Times Square just before midnight. One the subway, a white woman sitting in the corner of the train was watching us. Once our conversation died down, she began conversing with us. Light, easy conversation with a little back and forth. Then, a few minutes later, she asks “So I want to get your guys’ opinion on the Roseanne thing that’s going on right now. What do you think about it?” We all hesitated, and she took the pause to prep her own convictions. “Well I think that it’s just too much to be fired for saying something a little inconsiderate. I mean– she’s a comedian right? Nobody ever criticized much less fired Eddie Murphy for making fun of Italian people. I mean it was just a joke.” She went on and we sat quietly, a racially minority group of women, taking it all in.
One suite mate spoke up about her opinion on how there is a line between funny and dangerously racist. As we approached our stop, I mentioned that the power dynamics between Roseanne and any black woman that she “jokingly” criticizes and Eddie Murphy and Italian people is completely different. I left the subway shocked to hear her thoughts, but invigorated by the conversation and felt my beliefs molding around a story in the news I had barely paid attention to. I found myself wondering: To what extent should we try and change what we see as unjust processes… and to what extent can a joke really be just a joke? This was just one moment of many that I felt my perspective of my own beliefs and how others perceive the world broadening as I had to face such starkly different opinions from my own.
“Nowhere in the constitution does it say the word woman.”
My experiences at Legal Momentum pushes me in a different way. I was tasked right away with work that will help launch a training program for sexual assault victim advocates that instructs them on how to navigate the criminal justice system. As I leafed through the entire program, I learned a great deal about the court system and the unique way that the process of trying a sexual assault case affects the protection of victims’ rights.
It amazes me how much work Legal Momentum is able to undertake with its small staff that fits into two small, square rooms. Like any non-profit, they are underfunded and each person is responsible for the work of twelve people, but learning about their efforts to pass a Woman’s Bill of Rights, create a guide on the criminal justice system for victim advocates, and to pass the Equal Rights Amendment is giving me an opportunity to observe and contemplate the broader effort to change the world that women have to currently try to survive in. I’m especially excited to get involved with the decades-long movement to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which would guarantee equal legal rights to all American citizens regardless of sex. At first glance, I thought this was a given, but as Jenn, Senior Attorney at LM, mentioned in one of our meetings… “Nowhere in the constitution does it say the word woman.” As I’m realizing working in a legal defense fund, the law is the language of the land… and when the language leaves out a very important group of American citizens, inequality is inevitable. I look forward to working on these projects and slowly shifting the way we articulate our rights and the way we educate those who police our rights.
From my long discussions with Lena, my NJEP supervisor, I’ve to come to appreciate how you can work towards something, while recognizing that your work is not the end-all, be-all. There are many hurdles to changing the world for the better that we ourselves as individuals, non-profit organizations, and communities can create.
The Lessons I’m Learning…
I’m learning to think quickly, logically, and adapt by struggling with the subway that first day of work.
I’m learning to engage with those who think very differently from me, not just to understand their views, but also to understand my own.
I’m learning to be constantly critical of the systems we work within.
From jarring poetry that shocks me, makes me squirm, or makes me laugh, to the people in the Moxie program that I’ve found I can find comfort in, New York is teaching me to push my own self to question my convictions and broaden my knowledge. I’m looking forward to what the next seven weeks of the program and New York have to offer me. In the meantime — here’s a place I got to see that made me happy this week: MoMaCha coffee and their glitter board (ft. Bella Miller, a sweet Moxie friend).
