On November 1, 2012, I stood with hundreds of fellow lawyers that had just passed the Illinois bar exam, including a rigorous background check, and took the following oath: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of…

Just over 4 years ago, on November 9, 2016, I woke up, as many other fellow Americans, to the fact that Donald Trump had won the electoral college vote. Like my fellow Americans, I showered and got dressed, crying through the process and dabbing makeup on my now puffy eyes…

Dear Judge Barrett: I am a South Asian American woman and an attorney in Chicago in practice for 8 years. I write not because of my political or personal views; rather, I write from my concern for the sustainability of our democracy if you accept the Supreme Court vacancy. As…

I waited a year into working for my last employer before I told the law firm how to pronounce my name the right way. I waited until a firm office meeting, and when other matters came up, I meekly raised my hand. “Um, my name is pronounced Pree-Thee.” They all…

This trite, naïve, and somewhat pathetic poem, written by a 12-year-old me, makes my heart cringe into an embarrassed huddle in the corner of my chest. In the 24 years that passed since I wrote my first real (horrible) poem in 1999, my once simple embarrassment has morphed into a…

I knew a sad girl named Pretty. She lived in this body for a time, beginning at the ripe age of zero. Pretty liked the puns with her name. She enjoyed the way jokes broke ice, sanitized her brownness and created laughter when lips spoke her name. Because, you see…

The Problem with Vivek (and Bobby and Nikki) — “Immigration without assimilation is an invasion.” [1] Former Louisiana Governor and 2016 candidate for the GOP presidential nomination Bobby Jindal, formerly known as Piyush Jindal at the GOP primary debate on August 6, 2015. “We should use those same [American] resources to prevent across the invasion of our own southern…

Ashes to ashes? Or, til’ death do us part. You can’t break me. You can’t take me. You can’t stop me. You can’t trap me. You can’t dim me. You can’t kill me. You can’t trick me. You can’t use me. You can’t quiet me. You can’t top me. You can’t copy me. You can’t ignore me. You…

you’re a sad girl — you don’t smile enough. you’re a bad girl — you comment too much. you’re a threat, girl — you laugh too loud. stay pet and sit still, girl — bow that head, speak only when allowed. you know, you would be so pretty, if only you just let your brain be lighter, like moldy bread, let your thoughts expire. I always enjoy a brown face, set against a hollow head.