image by Jessica Felicio

Commencement Advice for Outsiders: Now and Then, Let Go of Resistance

I was invited to speak at a gathering of women of color graduating from law school, and I said yes. Many of the women had been my students. I looked from the podium to their brown and golden faces, their hair long and black, kinky and short, in braids or shorn, their minds enriched with the powerful architecture of a first-rate legal education, their futures open, and my…