The picture above (who I am unsure of who posted it) shows just how many women came together during the suffrage movement. Many different women of color from all walks of life all fighting the same fight. A fight for their own rights. All the women who did come together during the suffrage movement had one common goal in mind and that was to have the right to vote. While the movement began with white women and women of color protesting side by side the issue of race came soon after. With the civil war at its height race became a bigger issue only causing the suffrage movement to take a back burner to a much bigger fight happening.

While watching the video “Untold Stories of Black Women in the suffrage movement” by the KD Hall Foundation I learned about Ida B wells a journalist and one of the many leaders of the civil rights movement. As well as a founder of the National Association Advancement of Colored People or the NAACP, many say she is one of the most famous black women of history. It began in 1981 where Wells launches her national wide anti-lynching campaign after the murder of three of her friends in Memphis, Tennessee. (One hundred years towards Sufferage: An Overview by E. Susan Barber) Wells exposed just how primitive and horrific lynching could be and it was used to intimidate and oppress African American men.

I loved the picture provided by Safiya Saidah Charles. It perfectly depicts that Women are protecting women. women are educating women, Women are protesting and speaking for women. They are taking control of their own lives because no one else is doing it for them. It’s also interpreting the history in each woman of the woman before us that were fighting for equal rights. or the woman that is protesting and advocating for the woman who was silenced or can’t protest themselves.

I watched the documentary Girls Connected by Koen Suidgeest. It was about 5 women who were fighting the inequality and gender norms of their communities. Josi of Peru going around her community and teaching young girls about protection when having sex but also just how important that no means no. She does this by gaining the attention of many kids with her words or fun exercises to get more people involved. She simply wants to prevent unwanted pregnancy in young girls so she found a way to help. Ayesha of India, fighting the gender norms by practicing karate typically seen as a male sport. All her practicing led her to many wins and titles. Michelle of Kenya teaching young girls that they can achieve their dreams by mentoring them at the organization Dream Sisterhood Foundation. She didn’t want these young girls to be hindered by their circumstances. Michelle is also fighting the gender norms by being one of the few women learning aeronautical, a more male-dominated field. Ghazal of Jordan Just wanting to make the world a better place, leaving some sort of impact in her life. She helps her community by painting murals and included the young kids and women join in. Latifa of Bangladesh showing the older generation of women that young girls shouldn’t be married off for food, money, or land. Offering the people she helped aid just in case something happens to them due to the breaking off of marriages. She shows the young girls that they don’t have to be married off especially so young and when they are unwilling. This documentary showed just how much someone can impact their community, changing the minds of the adult’s way of mind but also mold the minds of young girls.

I loved the artwork posted by Junie Vallon. The picture shows just how much society is catered to white people. Growing up everything was geared to white people and it was all we (as a person of color) had to look up to and follow. It was what we were supposed to strive for. Now the younger generation is changing that narrative and many non-ally white people don’t like it. White privilege isn’t spoken enough about. The actual meaning of White privilege is “a concept that highlights the unfair societal advantages that white people have over non-white people.” As said by Arlin Cuncic in her article “What is white privilege?” This is supported by Peggy McIntosh in her article White Privilage: Unpacking the invisible knapsack, she discovered many ways her skin color has given her the advantage in her life and she decided to identify the ways for example “I can turn on the television or open the front page of the paperand see people of my race widely represented. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.” This shows just how represented others have always been. The picture mentioned before shows this very well.The white privileged is shown here by the signs behind the two people, it shows just how much is catered to them yet the man is yelling and angry for not being seen as ‘special’. That picture perfectly shows what Marilyn Frye was speaking about in her essay Oppression, she wrote “For example, It is often a requirement upon oppressed people that we smile and be cheerful…On the other hand, anything but the sunniest countenance exposes us to being perceived as mean, bitter, angry, or dangerous.” People of color are seen as being ‘ungrateful when they are shown a sliver of representation. whether it be a single dark shade in a makeup line or a token black best friend in a tv show or movie, but it’s never enough because it’s not made for us. That makeup line wasn’t made for people of color it was made for white people but they throw in that shade to get the customer to buy it, that movie wasn’t made for a POC audience but they throw in someone of color to get the views. So to combat this many people of color have been showing their own black pride. Like Sharon Chuter that made her own beauty line called uomabeauty for persons like her with her skin tone. Or Tyler Perry who famously makes movies with an all black or people of colored cast for the views who would also be POC. Now that there are non white business owners making/selling specialized products for people like themselves many white customers get angry because these black beauty owners aren’t selling things they can use. Many people don’t see the irony in this and those who do are called out for ‘making something about race when it isn’t about it’ when they can’t see their own white privilege.

I loved this picture Pedro Mardones Lemebel and Francisco Casas Silva posted by Lizbeth Bolanos. This makes me think of when people say “We are all the same on the inside” But this time it’s not just about race but also gender. This picture showing the hearts connecting to one another because we are all humans in search of love in some shape or form. Alok said in her book Beyond the Gender Bianary “The gender binary is like a party guest who shows up before you get the chance to set the table” A baby is a baby, the people around the infant should be worried if they are fed, healthy and happy. What they shouldn’t be worried about is if the little boy likes a barbie doll or if the little girl likes dinosaurs. From the time they are announced they are put in a boxed gender from then on they aren’t able to choose who they want to be until they are able to have a thought for themselves. Adding to that, being taught from such a young age what a child is supposed to like or dislike sometimes doesn’t give the person the thought of being something other than the gender they were assigned because in a way they were brainwashed.

On the other hand, I also see a form of toxic love in this picture. The person on the left is giving their life form to the person on the right, while the person on the right is sucking all the life forms of the person on the left. In a way, it shows that they need each other to live since they are such outcasts in society still to this day. They literally depend on one another but it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Like Alok said in her book Beyond the Gender Binary “When I was in high school, I was tormented for being effeminate. Years after graduating, one of my most vicious bullies sent me a message apologizing….revealing that he had since come out as bisexual.” Many people are ostracized for being themselves rather than what is society “normal” and many times it’s by the same people who are also int eh LGBTQIA family. They feel jealous that a person can live so freely while they are in the closet and haven’t been able to come out yet.