How can I advocate for justice in systems that reflect only some of my identities?

This was Sor Juana's daily life. She worked within the Catholic Church while writing to defend Indigenous knowledge. She was a woman in an institution designed by men. She was educated in a system built on colonialism. She couldn't opt out, but she didn't pretend the system was just. Here's what matters: you can work within flawed systems without endorsing their flaws. You can advocate for change while participating. But this requires something harder than purity—it requires strategic clarity. First, decide what you're actually trying to change. Is it one policy? The culture? The entire structure? Your answer determines your approach. Sor Juana wrote what she could publish legally, circulated what she couldn't, and maintained friendships with powerful people who could help her ideas spread. She was pragmatic without being compromised. Second, name who the work serves. Advocacy isn't about making yourself feel righteous. It's about whether the person most harmed by injustice actually gets more power, resources, or dignity. That's your north star when the system gets murky. You'll feel complicit sometimes. That's the honest cost. But isolation changes nothing. What changes things is showing up with your full intelligence and refusing to let the system define the terms of justice. That's what Sor Juana did.