social justice

Governor O’Malley at BC Law: Restoring Integrity to Our Democracy

/ Ryan Murphy / Leave a comment

Governor Martin O’Malley may have taken a step back from the national stage to reflect and teach in suburban Newton, Massachusetts, but he is certainly not shying away from the issues at the heart of current American politics. In a talk entitled “Restoring Integrity to Our Democracy” at Boston College Law School on Tuesday, Gov. O’Malley contemplated the conditions that resulted in President Donald Trump’s election and urged action on a series of fronts in order to protect and revitalize our democratic system of government.

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The former Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore, who just last year shared a debate stage with Democratic Party candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, struck an ominous tone at the outset about the current state of the country. He warned of the dangers of the President’s ideology, which he called “Trumpism,” before rejecting Pope Francis’ recent suggestion that we should “wait and see” what President Trump does before judging him. “Our political institutions are in a state of crisis,” he said. “Now we must ask what each of us will do.”

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A March on D.C. in Support of Pluralism

/ Charlene Ochogo / Leave a comment

Even though I was not able to attend the Women’s March in D.C., I’ve been able to live vicariously through the experiences of several classmates, like my friend Molly McGrath. Molly is a 2L at Boston College Law School and originally from western New York. At BC, she is involved in LAMBDA and the Environmental Affairs Law Review. Although she doesn’t know exactly where her legal career will take her, she is grateful to attend an institution like BC Law and use its resources to navigate a rapidly changing legal and political climate.

A classmate and I sat in a law library study room several days after the election. We’d originally reserved the room to cram for our Admin Law final, but  found ourselves brainstorming ways to act with more intention and become more politically involved. My friend agreed to stop buying clothes online from retailers with supply chains reaching deep into the third world. I decided to schedule more time to read about the origins of the social justice movement. We both agreed to attend the Women’s March on Washington.

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On Privilege, Action, and Trump

/ Caroline Reilly / 1 Comment

On Tuesday night, I lay in bed refreshing the New York Times app and checking Twitter franticly. I voted for Hillary Clinton, and supported her from the first day of the primaries to the last day of the general; in fact I’d hoped that she would be running long before she announced it. When the push notification came into my phone naming Trump as president-elect, I cried.

The results of the election were gutting, for a number of reasons. After a campaign fueled by hatred and fear, Donald Trump’s presidency validated every anxiety I had felt during the general election—that there were more people willing to put the rights of others on the line to salvage their own privilege than there were people willing to work to correct the injustices in this country. We now know that Hillary won the popular vote, and while that is in and of itself reassuring, it does nothing to assuage my concerns about what a Trump presidency will mean for the safety of people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ community, disabled people, Muslims, or immigrants. Almost half the country voted for someone who admitted to sexually assaulting women, who called Mexicans rapists, who promised to ban Muslims, and who mocked a disabled person, and that is a stain on our history that will never come out.

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Niece May For President

/ Caroline Reilly / Leave a comment

I am thrilled and honored to be hosting this guest blog today from 2L Mousa Al-Mosawy on the impact of this incredibly important election.

My niece, May, is a witty six-year-old girl who just entered the first grade of elementary at the American Community School in Jordan. Even though she lives in the Middle East, May is an American citizen. Usually, I get to see May on Skype or over her summer holiday when she comes to the United States. We talk about everything from her school activities to new Disney releases to questions about my disability and wheelchair. Watching a child grow and communicate, in different ways, is a true wonder. May is curious yet cautious, she opens topics by asking pointed questions and forms an opinion based on the responses. In our last Skype session, my sister, Nour, told me about a conversation she had with May. It went something like this:

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Crime Documentaries: Are They Really Helping?

/ Ryan Murphy / 1 Comment

I’m happy to be able to host a guest blog today from first-year student Christina Sonageri.

Technology has changed the way we do a lot of things—including the way we stream content. With the advent of platforms like Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime and Hulu, society has access to movies and shows at the click of a button. The change in how we are able to watch has helped to facilitate a more efficient way for producers and writers to share their stories.

One genre that I think has really flourished as a result is the crime documentary. Now, even when I hear the word “documentary,” my mind begins to swirl with mug shots of Steven Avery, the subject of Netflix’s Making a Murderer series, and images of the countless other subjects whose faces define the genre. Every time a new crime story is released, it seems it’s the only thing that anyone can talk about.

However, growing up the daughter of two lawyers initially made me skeptical of anyone who was trying to fit a whole case into just a few hours of television or film. So I decided to sit down and explore whether these types of documentaries are helpful or detrimental to the people involved in the crime—and what their impact on society’s faith in the justice system might be.

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Toward Inclusivity and Cultural Competence

/ Charlene Ochogo / Leave a comment

Hi everyone and happy summer! I am very pleased to be able to host a guest blog today from the BC Law Alumni Board member Ingrid Schroffner, Assistant General Counsel at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

I am passionate about—and feel fortunate to be able to work on—diversity and unconscious bias issues at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS). My cross-cultural upbringing and my experience as an Asian-American lawyer contribute to my interest in this area.

My maternal grandfather immigrated from Okinawa to Hawaii in the first part of the 20th century to work in the sugarcane fields. I attended Japanese school when I was a child, and my household was filled with Japanese culture.

I also have a cross-cultural, East-West perspective. My father is a first-generation immigrant from Salzburg, Austria. I learned German from my father (and later, in school) and spent a summer living and working in Austria with my relatives. None of my grandparents spoke English. These two diverse heritages comprise my background.

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Meet the Affinity Group Leaders: Heather Perez (LALSA)

/ Marx P. Calderon / Leave a comment

Name: Heather PerezHaynes-IMG_5060

Year: 2L (Class of 2017)

Organization: Latin American Law Students Association (President)

Undergraduate Institution: Boston University

Experiences between college and law school:

I worked in public service in Boston as the Legislative Aide for State Representative Willie Mae Allen. Later, I served as the Chief of Staff for Boston City Councilor At-Large Felix G. Arroyo, and helped lead his campaign for Mayor.

 Favorite event that your organization plans:

LALSA hosts a “Day in the Life” for local high school students to come to BC Law and get a personal look at being a law student from the perspective of LALSA members. Part of our goals as an organization is to provide mentorship and it’s great to be able to do that both within our BC Law community and in the Greater Boston community.

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An Activist at Heart, A Journalist by Training, a Lawyer in the Making

/ Caroline Reilly / 2 Comments

As a kid I toggled back and forth between lots of answers to “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Lawyer was always on the short list. So was journalism.

I read “All the President’s Men” for an eighth grade book report, and it didn’t take long for me to make Bernstein and Woodward my personal journalism deities. To me, the idea that two reporters could take down a crooked president was (and still is) the epitome of what great journalism can do.

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A tale of intersectionality, or that one summer where Nicki Minaj was right about a lot of things

/ Charlene Ochogo / Leave a comment

I don’t consider pop artists to be role models, because, really, that’s not their job. Their job is to create music or act or…whatever it is Kim Kardashian does, and rarely do we care what they think about social justice issues.

So color me surprised when this summer I realized that Nicki Minaj’s social media skirmish was actually doing an awesome job of illustrating an issue most people don’t even really think about: intersectionality.

Before we get started to the juicy celebrity drama, let’s get some definitions out of the way. Quite simply, intersectionality is the study of how different forms of discrimination intersect. And a feminist is a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Easy, right?

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