I am the Reason I am Here — and We Absolutely Belong
By Jazmyn Taitingfong, Esq.
“Jazmyn, if you were really honest with yourself, the only reason you’re here is because you’re brown,” he said. I had just finished my 1L first semester finals at the University of Wisconsin Law School. This came from a fellow student, someone I considered a friend.
The University of Wisconsin Law School is far from a bastion of diversity. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the town is over seventy percent white. The majority of students at the undergraduate campus are white, and even more so at the law school. I was one of a relative handful of “brown” students. This comment personified the voice that tells students of color, “You don’t belong here.” It was only a moment, an off-hand comment, but to me it was cruel, and he had no idea how wrong he was. I was there because my parents instilled in me the passion and work ethic to set a goal and exceed it. I was there because I had the drive to push through adversity. I was there because I worked for it.
My father was born and raised on Guam, a small, picturesque island in the South Pacific, while my mother was born in Germany to my Native American grandfather and Hispanic grandmother. Both of my grandfathers were in the Army, and both my parents were raised as military brats, living on bases around the world. My father began his career as an airline mechanic in Saipan and my mother worked in an office. I was born in the States after my family relocated to Washington for my father’s job.
My parents always told my brothers and I that we could be and do whatever we wanted in life as long we went to college, a feat that neither of them had accomplished. This instilled the necessity of education in me and determination to make the most of the opportunities my parents sacrificed for. We had no lawyers in the family; my mother often says she doesn’t know where I got the idea to be one as a kid in elementary school. But at the time, this goal was enough to propel me forward. I didn’t know much about the law or the pathways to get there, but it seemed simple enough to me. Just be good at school, right? Well, that’s what I did. I was salutatorian of my high school class, which helped me get a scholarship to college. I graduated Magna Cum Lade from undergrad, while working a full time job. I worked my ass off to be excellent, because I didn’t know what I had to do to get where I wanted to be. It paid off when my parents and I opened my first acceptance letter to law school.
“If you were really honest with yourself, the only reason you’re here is because you’re brown.” This wasn’t repeated to any of the other white students around me, though I’m sure he didn’t know their backgrounds any better than he knew mine, just our skin color. I’m not the first brown girl to hear such a reductive statement about my abilities and, unfortunately, I won’t be the last. But what pushes us through, what allows us to rise above those brash and bigoted comments, is the communities we create. The communities of people who have seen what we’ve seen, who’ve been looked down on by teachers, administrators, and their peers solely because of the color of their skin. At the Color of Excellence, we know that no student deserves to feel less than because of their skin color. We know that the triumphs and the trials you persisted through because you have a goal. You have passion. You have a dream. This is the community that will support you, nurture you, while you live out your wildest dreams. A community that tells you if someone empowers you to know that “you’re only here because you’re brown,” you can look back at them with pity, for only the weak and mediocre can’t recognize strength and excellence.
