Black Women Beyond Affirmative Action

My Favorite Life Podcast

In November 2016, Black women knew that the impact of the 45th president’s decisions would have negative impacts on the entire country. It is why many of us, 96% of us, voted for Hilary Clinton. With our vote, we attempted to sound the alarm to the nation, and the world, that trouble was on the horizon.

Over the last year, our country has seen how even beyond 45’s presidency, destruction finds every aspect of our lives. Between the Supreme Court’s ruling of Roe v. Wade and now Students for Fair Admissions v. President of Harvard College, legal protections that once afforded Black women freedom and opportunity, are being stripped from our grasp.

In this episode, I sit with Natasha L. Robinson, Esq., creator and curator of Legaleaze Please! LLC, an online platform and digital space founded in May 2020, that empowers the development of individual and collective comprehension of criminal laws, cases, and policies through decoding, deconstructing, and demystifying legal language.

In our conversation, we discuss:

1. What really happened during the overturn.

2. These Supreme Court cases will have reverberating effects for generations, unless a new court creates a new precedence

3. We must be wary to not create new systems of hierarchy as we re-create what it means to be educated, economically protected and supported, and our most free and authentic selves

4. Reclaiming the Afrocentric tenets of community, the assets we have must be used to empower and advance members of our community so they know how to best navigate the systems that govern our society

5. We can anticipate that more cases that protect people of authentic backgrounds and identities (same gender loving couples, use of contraceptives), will be tried in the SCOTUS in the coming years

Though it may be grim, Natasha gives us an antidote for how we can move forward. Just as the pandemic required us to shift how we moved and interacted with the world, we have an opportunity to look back at our past to see how our communities thrived, bartered, learned, and grew, and apply it to our lives today.

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Connect with Nasha Robinsoni instagram.com/legaleaze_please

Resources Mentioned in the Show

• Grab an autographed copy of my book Of All the Lives I've Lived: This is My Favorite: An Inspirational Memoir

• Grab a copy from Amazon

• Natasha’s WGN Affirmative Action feature

• Natasha’s WGN Post Affirmative Action SCOTUS ruling feature

• https://www.youtube.com/@LegaleazePlease

• Clarence Thomas’ Roe V. Wade opinion

• Students for Fair Admission

• Sankofa Adrinka Symbol:

• Justice Sotomayer Affirmative Action Opinion

• Justice Jackson’s Affirmative Action Opinion

• Holding Change x adrienne maree brown:

• Emergent Strategy x adrienne maree brown

• In Search of Our Mother’s Garden x Alice Walker

About the Guest

Natasha Robinson, Esq. is the creator and curator of Legaleaze Please! LLC, an online platform and digital space founded in May 2020, that empowers the development of individual and collective comprehension of criminal laws, cases, and policies through decoding, deconstructing, and demystifying legal language. Legaleaze Please!, a Black-owned business created by a Black woman, provides relevant knowledge to legal information as well as equitable access for all users to understand and apply in their everyday lives. Natasha was formerly an assistant teaching professor of criminal justice at Roosevelt University. She taught

courses relating to criminal justice and was a faculty member of the Government, Law and Justice Department. Prior to coming to Roosevelt, Professor Robinson was a teacher at Chicago Public Schools, teaching law courses, including Criminal Law and Criminology, to high school students enrolled in the honors program. For six years, in addition to teaching, she also coached her high school students in preparation for criminal and civil mock trial exhibitions and competitions. Professor Robinson has been a licensed criminal defense attorney for more than 20 years, having served for twelve and a half years as an assistant public defender of Cook County, specializing in the representation of indigent clients charged with felony crimes.

Natasha is a regular guest legal analyst on CourtTV, WGN9 news, and is a monthly contributor to The Soultown Magazine Natasha earned her Bachelors of Arts in English from the University of Iowa, her Masters of Arts in English from Chicago State University, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Of all her accomplishments, accolades, and awards, “Grace’s Mama” is the most amazing of them all.

Professor Robinson is the proud mother to Grace Corrine and together they are each other’s partner in life and in love.

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