“Well, I have a choice here. I can accept the injustice or rewrite the law.”
Amanda Nguyen (born c. 1991) is the founder and CEO of Rise, a civil rights legislation organization. The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to petition Congress to make a law, but the process of getting a law passed is difficult. Rise has developed a structure and techniques for helping people to pass laws in the United States. The organization is responsible for the passage of the Federal Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act, as well as numerous state laws guaranteeing and rationalizing the rights of survivors of sexual violence. Nguyen and Rise also succeeded in getting the UN to pass a resolution urging countries to take effective measures to help survivors of sexual and gender-based violence to access justice, remedies, and assistance. It is the first time the UN has addressed sexual violence in peacetime.
“We are leaders from #MeToo, #StopAsianHate, Women’s March, and March for Our Lives—the largest grassroots organizing moments in recent US history. We started by fighting for survivors of sexual violence and collectively we’ve passed more than 60 laws. We’ve gathered our experience to teach you how to pass your own law for your community.” –from risenow.us
Amanda Nguyen has a background in astrophysics and national security. While she was a student at Harvard someone raped her, and then she learned how broken the justice system is for survivors of sexual violence. Across the country there was a wide variation in the way rapes are investigated and adjudicated. Of particular concern to Amanda was that in Massachusetts the evidence collected (the “rape kit”) would be destroyed after 6 months if charges hadn’t been filed, but the statute of limitations didn’t run out for 15 years. Meanwhile, to try a rape case takes about 2 years of traumatic work. Amanda had to choose whether to give up her job offer in Washington D.C. or to stay in Massachusetts and receive justice. She thought this was just wrong, so she took her Washington job and also started Rise—in her spare time!—so that she could fix the system for other rape survivors. We have seen this before in the stories of perSISTERS: Amanda turned pain and outrage into purpose and regard for other people.
Part of Amanda’s success comes from her social—and social media—abilities and her ease in engaging with famous people to spotlight her issues. She is at ease in fashion shows and filmed interviews. She is brilliant, analytical, and articulate. But it is evident that her rape and her creation of Rise has sidetracked her from what she really wants to do with her life, which is to be an astronaut. Changing the world is just a side gig. She’s working on it, though, and you can follow her training on her Instagram feed (@nguyen_amanda). Maybe having a public life will help her achieve her dream.
About the phrase HACK THE SYSTEM
Hacking has two main senses. One is destructive: a hacker gains unauthorized access to software and manipulates the code to destroy the program or to make a profit on manipulating the program. Another sense is creative: for example, a hack is using some system devised for one purpose in order to make something unrelated work better. In effect it means to make a system work for one’s particular goal. Amanda’s goal is justice for people who don’t usually have a platform to access justice.
What that hack looked like:
“We put together this basic set of rights and aimed to pass it in the United States Congress. And when we first started out, we were a group of 20 something-year-olds with no money, no connections, no power. And people thought we were a joke. And we just kept relentlessly organizing [and] putting our heads together.”
“I did not have the political luxury of a cathartic performance. I had urgency. My rape kit had a literal timeline to be destroyed. … My justice would be literally thrown in the trash. … I needed to work with anyone and everyone within the legislative process in order to pass these laws. That profoundly shaped the way that I negotiated my rights. … Democracy inherently requires its citizens to hash things out. And so when survivors at Rise or any organizer enters a room of a Senator, they leave their political tribalism at the door.”
“When I got there, even our lead sponsors, the lead senators and representatives who work on this bill, said, ‘I’m so sorry. It’s not going to pass this time.’ And for the next 14 hours, the Rise team and I literally just walked into the decision-makers’ offices and said, ‘I’m here. Here’s why I care about this issue. Respectfully, please listen to our stories.’ We asked people to call into the speaker’s office. I witnessed those calls come in person. And at the end of those 14 hours, he brought it up for a vote, and it passed.”
RESOURCES
My favorite thing is this “School of Greatness” video podcast interview, this is where she uses the phrase “Hack the System”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtkLeG6h7Kg
And a written synopsis of the podcast: https://lewishowes.com/podcast/take-your-power-back-with-amanda-nguyen/ The Amanda quotes above are from this synopsis.
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