GP MICROAGGRESSIONS - CASE 4
It is a sunny afternoon in July. Jamil, a third-year associate at the firm, invites a small group of lawyers and students out for a drink at the Queen & Beaver. Jamil makes sure to include Jena, a new summer student, who seems to have been slow to integrate. Jamil is aware that while all three of the other students know each other from Osgoode, Jena attends law school on the west coast, where she was raised, and started summering a week later than the others. Once seated on the Q&B patio, lawyers start sharing anecdotes from their week. Some of the stories are very funny, and Jamil notice Jena laughing and seeming more at ease. Eventually, after a brief lull in the conversation, Jena jumps in to share an anecdote of her own.
She had been asked by a lawyer to meet with clients at the union office to take them through some documents. Somehow, she had punched the wrong address into the Uber app. She walked around for a while looking for the union building before realizing her mistake. The neighbourhood seemed poor, with a lot of public housing. She had a moment of feeling quite nervous when a group of Black teenagers started following her while calling things out to her that she didn't understand.
"I actually started running," Jena explained, "it was all super sketch. Then one of them caught up to me and grabbed me by the arm. He was holding something and I was sure it was a gun. I literally almost died. But then I realized that he was holding a phone, not a gun. And what he was saying to me was, "Miss, you dropped your phone."
Everyone laughed. Jamil laughed too. It was a funny, self-deprecating story, and he was glad to see Jena finally coming out of her shell. But having grown up in public housing, he was reminded of all the stereotypes that attached to place he came from and to the people who lived there, and felt the sting of having a neighbourhood like his described as "sketch". Jamil glanced at Amina, another one of the summer students. She wasn't laughing, but looking down at her drink while twisting her straw.
She had been asked by a lawyer to meet with clients at the union office to take them through some documents. Somehow, she had punched the wrong address into the Uber app. She walked around for a while looking for the union building before realizing her mistake. The neighbourhood seemed poor, with a lot of public housing. She had a moment of feeling quite nervous when a group of Black teenagers started following her while calling things out to her that she didn't understand.
"I actually started running," Jena explained, "it was all super sketch. Then one of them caught up to me and grabbed me by the arm. He was holding something and I was sure it was a gun. I literally almost died. But then I realized that he was holding a phone, not a gun. And what he was saying to me was, "Miss, you dropped your phone."
Everyone laughed. Jamil laughed too. It was a funny, self-deprecating story, and he was glad to see Jena finally coming out of her shell. But having grown up in public housing, he was reminded of all the stereotypes that attached to place he came from and to the people who lived there, and felt the sting of having a neighbourhood like his described as "sketch". Jamil glanced at Amina, another one of the summer students. She wasn't laughing, but looking down at her drink while twisting her straw.
- You are Jamil. How do you respond?