Law in Contemporary Society

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RuthSamuelFirstEssay 4 - 13 May 2025 - Main.RuthSamuel
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.

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 Beyond the ivory tower, this extends into the legal profession, an occupation that seemingly frowns upon boundaries, laughs at the notion of “work-life balance,” and wonders why attorneys grapple with substance abuse. As a student aspiring to join the 2%, i.e. the percentage of Black woman attorneys in the U.S., I am tasked with doing my job, and then some. I will shoulder the responsibility of not only managing my work but engaging in recruitment and retention efforts to sustain and support Black attorneys and law students when institutions inevitably fail us.
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<		It's necessary work and still, we should not be expected to spearhead these efforts alone. For whom does this ultimately benefit? Although 92% of us Black women who voted in the 2024 election did our “jobs,” time and time again, we are told to be grateful to occupy the spaces we do, as if our mere presence is a nuisance. My worth is not tethered to my output or utility. As Audre Lorde once wrote,“Overextending myself is not stretching myself…Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." Black women are neither your mules nor your martyrs. It is not our job to rescue and restore America.
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>		Despite consistent, systemic exclusion from “elite” circles, we’ve persisted, making a way where there was no way. We walk on the shoulders of trailblazers such as Elreta Melton Alexander ‘45, the first Black woman to graduate from Columbia Law School. We find solace, inspiration, and endurance in our predecessors, such as the late Prof. Kellis E. Parker, one of four students to integrate my alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill. We created community and opportunities through national organizations such as the Black Law Students Association. It is precisely because of our persistence and resilience that DEI is under attack in full force today. We succeed in spite of these institutions, not because of them.
 
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>		It's necessary work and still, we should not be expected to spearhead these efforts alone. For whom does this ultimately benefit? Although 92% of us Black women who voted in the 2024 election did our “jobs,” time and time again, we are told to be grateful to occupy the spaces we do, as if our mere presence is a nuisance. My worth is not tethered to my output or utility. As Audre Lorde once wrote,“Overextending myself is not stretching myself…Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." Black women are neither your mules nor your martyrs. From the classroom to the courtroom or the boardroom, it is not our job to rescue and restore America.
 
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So what might one do with the other 120 words available? This is excellent, it's work in your wheelhouse and you do it as well, I think, as it can be done. I'm a little surprised indeed that you didn't have one more idea on the outline that would have used the remaining space; perhaps a turn towards law school to meet the actual readers where they are? A reflection on the dignity of work and the value we as individuals ascribe to ourselves as workers? Your ideas are worth taking all the room available for, and if there will not always be space made for them in law school, all the more reason to use what there is.
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You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.

Revision 4r4 - 13 May 2025 - 19:49:05 - RuthSamuel
Revision 3r3 - 27 Apr 2025 - 18:00:22 - EbenMoglen

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