In the reading of “The Combahee River Collective Statement”, we are presented with a group of feminists who are African American and part of the LGBTQ. For them as black feminists they mention they have to fight against the simultaneous oppressions of being a woman, a person of color and being lgbtq. The reading states how “Black, other Third World, and working women have been involved in the feminist movement from its start, but both outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement itself served to obscure our participation”. So even as women supporting each other, they were outcasted. Thus, when the NBFO was formed, it was to aid black women, so that they can have each other’s backs. I really like the snapshot by Jasmin H. because it illustrates how women of color must there for each other when others won’t be there. Furthermore, later in the reading they stated how it’s difficult to differentiate the difference between race from class from sex oppression, since they are a simultaneous experience that these women have faced throughout their lifetime just like how a member of the reading states “We are all damaged people merely by virtue of being Black women”. When I read this, I realized how African American women are constantly fighting for themselves. They are pushed over by men both African American and white and even by other women, white women.
The video “Paris is Burning”, focuses on how the experiences of African Americans, and lgbtq+ individuals. In the video we can see how they have this one event where they truly go out to enjoy themselves. We are narrated how this event was highly looked forward to and in comparison, the everyday life that surrounded these individuals was so difficult, that this event was their form of happiness and a moment to forget and enjoy. In the beginning of the video a narrator states what their father had told them, which goes along the lines of “In life you have three strikes against you in this world, every black man has two. That they are black, and they are a male. But you are black and a male and your gay… if you are going to do this you are going to have to be stronger than you ever imagined”. Basically, his father, was preparing his son. Letting him know that they will always have that target on their backs, and the best they can do is be strong, for themselves. Because at the end of the day, they must fight for themselves. Sometimes, like presented in the video, some parents won’t support their children, and they must stand up and find a way for themselves to move forward, without a parent’s guide. Furthermore, in the video an individual states how certain there will be individuals at these events, that will give out their all, to demonstrate they can be somebody but at the end of the day, they go home and are lost in the real world. Because the real world is unjust and cruel. And they are not able to perform that same talent they can give.
