I am a young and a woman of color. I am an incoming associate at an established firm in a relatively small city (~80k population). I like the firm very much. I am, however, the only woman of color at my firm. I grew up on the nearby reservation. I have recently been vocal about a local business changing its name. The name venerates an individual who massacred native people. It made the news. Am I ruffling too many feathers? Should I be less vocal now that I will be a lawyer? I feel uncomfortable

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I cannot say from any personal experience (being white, older, and unquestionably having benefited from numerous privileges) but it seems to me that as a woman of color, you may have more power than you realize. This profession requires deftness, but do not relinquish your voice too readily.

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Do the damn thing. Remember the root of our profession is advocating to eradicate injustice. If you’re getting blowback, you may want to consider whether you want to work for people whose morals and values don’t align with yours.

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I’m a millennial. Tell me the name of the business and my people will have it cancelled for you. Lol if your firm gives you trouble, name it and we’ll cancel them, too. *Starts getting the memes ready*

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YES

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OP, power to you, but maybe you could consider picking your fights so you're able to reconcile both your work at the (ultimately someone else's) firm and your community work. Also consider moving to a bigger city where you could have a greater chance of advancing your social work a few years down the line.

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Kudos to you for making a statement about the way history is being remembered in your community. It's important for people in our profession to be advocates for justice. From a moral perspective, if you aren't ruffling feathers, I'd be worried you weren't vocal enough.

From a practical perspective, I think you could tell us more than we could tell you. It depends entirely on what your firm's relationship is with that business and the wider community. Are you already getting blowback? What is the nature of the blowback - what are people telling you or implying? These situations can be fraught, but I think as long as you're not explicitly throwing your firm's name out there when making public statements and generally keeping work separate from your personal activism, that is really all you need to do. If the firm is worried about prospective clients because of your work on this, I'd wait for them to say something. I'm more of the mind of asking forgiveness, not permission, unless you think they'll be highly supportive and want to coordinate messaging with you.

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I struggle with similar questions all of the time, though in a different context. I am a civil rights attorney and I feel that it isn't right when I see lawyers support systemic oppression while claiming it is on behalf of their clients. It's incredibly uncomfortable at times but I do feel compelled to speak out against the notion that attorneys are only mouth pieces for their clients, even directly to my opposing counsel. That any attorney, no matter who their client, should remain silent (or even worse, act complicity) with respect to acts that are morally or ethically repugnant. Ultimately, I think you should speak your mind, and you'll find out far more quickly if your firm is or isn't a good fit based on how people react.

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Hi, everyone. And thank you for taking the time to give me such thoughtful responses. Prior to my speaking against the business, I spoke with my firm because I recognize that this kind of activity has the potential to drive away clients. I felt neither discouraged...nor supported. It was neutral. I did, however, get the sense that this was a really uncomfortable topic: this is why, in my original post, I made a point to mention I’m the only woman of color. I would like to continue my advocacy, but I feel lonely/without meaningful support. The firm itself touts itself as being quite progressive and they have been instrumental in bringing about some positive changes in the community, but when race is at the forefront of today’s conversation and I’m in a position to advocate, I don’t want to stifle my voice because it makes my colleagues uncomfortable. It’s a weird spot to be in. I have not received criticism or blowback from my colleagues, which is helpful, but I also get the impression maybe I shouldn’t be so visible, I don’t know....

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White people being uncomfortable with you taking a stand against racism suggests their BIPOC allyship is feigned. Don’t let “firm culture” and “office politics” sweep sincere advocacy against discrimination under a rug, that’s a prime example of systematic racism stemming from white people. The fact that you said they were clearly uncomfortable but permissive suggests to me they’ve got some learning and improvement to do still. So long as you aren’t doing something radical like throwing a Molotov cocktail at cops, if they’re not racists, they’ll need to learn to be comfortable and supportive of your fight even if it’s uncomfortable because that’s what real allyship is made from.

Nothing pisses me off more than white people who claim to be allies and then they turn around and get uncomfortable when anti-racist advocacy gets too close to their house. Like, sure you’re trying but that’s such an obvious sign of racism. It’s the same shit when someone white sees a BIPOC get on the bus and they instinctually clutch their bag yet claim they aren’t racist.

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No. Do not be less vocal. Be sure that you’re coming across professionally and proud of the message you’re sending, but any firm that fires you or pushes you out for taking the right stand on these things is not the right place for you. It will also look really bad on that firm to support a dead genocidal figure over a living survivor.

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It’s easy for everyone to come and say “this is great, that’s what attorneys should do anyway!” But at the end of the day, nobody would have to deal with negative consequences, if any. You need to discuss this with your firm. They may like it and give you thumbs up, or they may be really against it because it may offend one of their big clients. Who knows how they will react, but that is the only way you can be responsible about this. You don’t necessarily have to be less vocal as an attorney, but you should certainly do things in a more calculated fashion.

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