Allison Williams
9/27/21
Section 170W
GWS 100
Introduction to Erick Luevanos’ snapshot
The snapshot from Erick Luevanos depicts a Black civil rights activist who speaks her mind about how she’s not free if other women are not free and even women who are different share a common struggle to be treated equally. My thoughts are for this snapshot is that I agree with it because other women want to have their rights. I have seen a few documentaries, as well as movies that I can relate to this article. For example, a video that is called “Untold Stories of Black Women in the Suffrage Movement” which talks about Black women fighting in the suffrage movement. Even after slavery ended, Black women were still experiencing suffering, racism and white supremacy. Noble figures such as Ida B. Wells who fought hard against sexism, racism and violence in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She also contributed to share evidence on the conditions of African Americans throughout the South. Wells also then co-owned and wrote the Memphis Free speech and headlight newspaper and she documented about lynching in the country. How I felt about this is far disappointing and it is hurting the human rights due to racism. This also relates to the reading called “There Is No Hierarchy of Oppressions” by Audre Lorde, because the author mentions that being Black while in the lesbian and gay community has shown her that there is no hierarchy of oppression because there are no levels of oppression and they are all equally important. In the snapshot, there is a similar point in it because any women of all races who are either in LGBTQ community or not still have struggles that ties to the author’s own issues.
The second article “Patriarchy, The System” by Allan G. Johnson makes ties to the snapshot because rights being denied by patriarchy in society. Men can become offensive due to thinking that they are superior to women. Something that I found in the reading is a quote that Johnson mentioned. It tells us what Harry Brod said said about male privilege. “We need to be clear that there is no such thing as giving up one’s privilege to be “outside” the system. The only question is whether one is part of the system in a way which challenges or strengthens the status quo. Privilege is not something I take and which I therefore have the option of not taking.” (Johnson, pg 41) I agree with what is said in this quote but I am glad it never happened to me. My parents raised both me and my brothers and treated our genders equally with respect. For example, my brother had to do the dishes just like I did. In other homes that kind of work would be for the girl. But not in my home home thankfully. My mother wanted her daughter to be educated just like her sons. That again is an example of how my family did not submit to patriarchy.
