Washington Lawyer - November/December 2020 - 38

TAKING THE STAND

TURNING OFF THE WHITE NOISE OF

SYSTEMIC RACISM

Getty Images / Pool

By Natasha Távora Baker

"Taking the Stand" appears periodically
in Washington Lawyer as a forum for
D.C. Bar members to address issues of
importance to them and that would be
of interest to others. The opinions
expressed are the author's own. For
submissions, email editorial@dcbar.org.

T

he current national spotlight
on white supremacy brings
me back to late last year,
when I saw the play White Noise
by Suzan-Lori Parks at the Berkeley
Repertory Theatre in California.
White Noise tells the story of Leo,
his girlfriend, and their friends
Misha and Ralph.

Leo suffers from insomnia, and one of his
coping mechanisms is to go for walks. One
night, he takes a different walking path and
gets beaten up by cops who are suspicious
of a Black man in a wealthy neighborhood.
To overcome this traumatic experience, Leo
proposes becoming Ralph's slave (Leo is Black;
Ralph is white) for 40 days. Ralph accepts.
Where my story intersects with Leo's is the
point where Ralph forces Leo to wear a slave
collar borrowed from a museum. It's an enor-
mous metal ring covered in large spikes that
was designed to keep slaves immobile;
should they try to run with it and fall, they'd
be impaled.
While watching Ralph present the collar to Leo,
I experienced something I had never experienced before: dissociation. Instinctually, my
body switched into survival mode, blurring
my vision and dulling my hearing to help me
detach from what was happening on stage.
I cried and shivered. I felt lightheaded to the
point of almost passing out. I would have
welcomed falling unconscious if it meant
not feeling anything for a little while, at least
until intermission.
The slave collar scene triggered traumatic
memories for me, and I dissociated to cope.

38 WASHINGTON LAWYER

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

I had flashbacks to times when I had seen
my clients in chains - when I stood next to
them or sat in front of them, trying my best
to defend their humanity while they couldn't
even hold a pen properly. I was triggered
because shackles are a modern version of
what Leo was forced to wear.

MODERN-DAY SHACKLES
From 2017 to 2019, I was a Skadden Fellow at
Open City Advocates (OCA), a nonprofit legal
organization in Washington, D.C., that provides
post-sentencing representation and mentoring
to indigent juveniles in the local juvenile justice
system. OCA also provides significant assistance when clients end up in the adult system.
As a fellow, I routinely visited clients in jail.
In D.C. Superior Court, incarcerated defendants
wait in an area behind the courtroom before
their cases are called. It is composed of a series
of rooms that are like Russian nesting dolls.
From the courtroom, to the left or right of the
judge's bench, you walk through a door into
a hallway, which leads to another door that is
locked. The guards - who are U.S. Marshals in
the District - must let you in. Once through
that door, you find yourself standing in a room
that contains multiple cages. Your client is
inside one of those cages, chained at the
Washington Lawyer - November/December 2020

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