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For Such A Time As This: How The Kyle Rittenhouse Verdict Impacts Me As An AAPI Mother, Community Leader, and Prospective Criminal Defense Attorney.
“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” — Esther 4:14, NIV
When I was a little girl, I fell in love with the story of Esther. She was beautiful, powerful, and devastatingly calm in her decision making. She was young. She was of a politically endangered ethnic minority. She was a person of faith and value. And she was a badass woman.
For so long I have come to know my identity as a survivor. And you may know me this way as well. But as strong as I have been, for the battles I have endured, the greatest strength I bring is my willingness to continue to be soft, beautiful, and to love swiftly and courageously.
When I was young, I didn’t make the connection that part of why Esther is so remarkable is because her courage is intensely vulnerable and intimate. When she approached the King, it was as his wife, but in an egregious dynamic of a hierarchical, patriarchal free for all in terms of checks and balances. By making herself vulnerable in an intimate setting with such a disproportionately powerful partner, Esther knew she was risking her life, her…
