I liked Nancy Susano’s snapshot post of an image of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I watched some of the documentary that she was in with three other democratic female parties who weren’t politicians but were actually a part of their community and district that wanted change in all areas. She was an activist. Alexandria was a bartender. She was one out of many civilians in the world who lived the reality of survival, like financial issues. Being elected wasn’t just about her and what she needed; it was about them, us, the community, and what they needed, such as healthcare and being debt-free from school. She always had a deep understanding of what she was fighting for, and the way her body language is presented in this image says it all about how powerful she is and her voice. She is experienced enough to be as strong as she is for people, and that’s where being prepared for anything comes from.

Activists aren’t just fighting. They are consistently extending their approach or goal by really stepping into the process that never stops teaching you, helps you reevaluate, and helping others to pursue better. Activism can start with the community and building it from there. In the film, Alexandria was out in her community, I believe, with her niece handing out flyers. Not everyone in her community who passed by her or spoke to her had fully comprehended her story and approach. Some even were already supporters of her opponent. She was fairly new and didn’t have the promo she had later on in the film, but just because they didn’t support her at that very moment didn’t mean they should be counted out. They would soon get there, even though the first engagement would create easier access to understanding an activist’s point of view, especially if it relates to something personal.

I think one of the most powerful things Alexandria did was create a grassroots campaign. A grassroots campaign is basically using the people of your district or community to be the base movement, whether it is socially, politically, or economically. The best thing as an activist is when people have pure self-interest in what you’re doing and what your goal is, and they work and support your greatest accomplishment because it isn’t just a win for the face of the project; it’s the reasoning behind it. The people know what they need because it belongs to them.

I want to elaborate on the idea in the text “How to Think Like an Activist” by Wendy Syfret is the power of the youth. There is a big power shift when it comes to generation, and it includes the power of bringing the real issues they see that are more global now than the ones from before because they didn’t live it as the older generation has. It’s about what can be brought to the table by the young generations because their playbook is starting from scratch to resolve the global problems of now. The old plays didn’t work out for the older generation, so now there’s a use of social media, protests, parades, gatherings, debates, and more.

Ceranlly Serrano Rodriguez 

10/05/2021

Respond #5

In the article “How To Think Like An Activist” by Wendy Syfret he talks about how to think like an activist and the great achievements that have happened in history. It explains how activists make the modern world of how not so long ago activists created the world in which we live, how every freedom, security and right that we have obtained is thanks to a person who decided to protest and fight for the rights we have today. Also a result of an activist would come being the right and freedom that we women have today. Something that caught my attention a lot about the article that can compare to my snapshot #5 was the paragraph “when young people speak, the world listen” here explains how we young people give activists the ability to be heard since we are a fresh voice and to have the ability to break discourses differently since we see things in a different way. Despite not having the experience as an activist a young person can make up for it with ingenious ways of working, thinking, inspiring action and getting attention from others. And I relate this part of the article with my snapshot #5 since in my country there were many cases of corruption and the people but more the young people were tired of the abuse that the rulers and the president were doing therefore a mass of young people began to create movement and protest against corruption in my country and not only protested in the Dominican Republic what I am most proud of was that it expanded throughout the world thousands of young people went to face their country including me for a better future for their family despite not living there, but we did it for a change and a better future.  Thanks to this protest we managed to get rid of the corrupt government that has been governing for more than 10 years and as in the article it says in the paragraph “A Generation Online ” as many millennials and gen Z generation joined through the networks to organize these protests via social networks and using hashtags. And not only the type of protest in my country also and seen how other countries like Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia have done the same for the change of their country, on the other hand we can also see a great example of ahce little as the death of George Floyd created the movement “Black Live Matter” that thanks to technology and social networks came to light the videos in which changed the world since we can see how this man was abused by the police. 

About the movie “knock down the house” I was very moved to see young women fight for the rights of us women and other needs in today’s society such as raising the minimum wage, creating more medical insurance, gender equality, etc. This moved me a lot since she is a young Latina with whom I identify a lot and I am proud to see how young she achieves what she has today. and does for us. For me it was an inspiring film since I saw how young women fight to obtain the security, freedom, and rights of us the minority and how we can see all the work and sacrifice of each one.

Activists in our histories have achieved great milestones for the rights of many different marginalized groups of people, as well as for the general public. While those so-called milestones may or may not have been very large they still helped to improve the quality of life for a lot of people and have passed on the torch to the next generations to achieve even more in their respective fields. In the film “American Revolutionary The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs”, they talk about the life of Grace Lee Boggs in which she did an amazing amount of work as an activist for civil rights, even doing things as incredible as working with the black panthers, and trying to convince Malcolm X to run for president. It’s incredible that she worked for so much to the point that she spent her whole life doing it, and writing to spread activist ideals late into her life up until her death. She’s truly a very inspiring person, and it’s great to think about the people who she has inspired to activism and the people they might have inspired as well. Something that is touched on in the reading, “How to think like an activist” is how social media has impacted activism across the country. People have access to a lot of information nowadays and they can learn about current events pretty soon after they happen so long as they can get past efforts to keep them hidden which is so often tried by police and government. I’ve seen a lot more posts within the past few years related to activist movements and spreading activist ideals and messages for the betterment of different communities and social problems as well as actions of systemic oppression. Even though this has also brought with it a lot of bad, such as people clogging up important social media channels that people more active in these movements and protests use regularly to find things out quickly and effectively. It’s also a shame that a large portion of those people also made those quick posts and did little or nothing more past that. But I think that with some tweaking to how we use social media as well as the giant problem we have with misinformation and propaganda in this country, social media can become a really great tool we can all use to help and take part in many great movements to combat many problems we and other people have to deal with in this country.

I like Mei Qi Chen Snap Shot because her snapshot shows how women should also be treated the same way as men since man have more power than us. We cannot just stay silent staying silent it is like not speaking up for yourself and therefore we have the right to do so. And protest are necessary speaking up for your own power and rights. The YouTube film that I have watch today called Crip Camp A Disability Revolution I did not finish the whole thing because it was a bit long but it talks about how disability trying to fit in with other people because most people there wasn’t really disable and can do many things. Basically these people were telling their own stories about their life as disable person like Judy other kids thought that she was sick instead of disability but it was so hard for her to actually explain because she was the only one different in school. And she didn’t feel like she fit in. She went to a school mostly for disable people and made some friends there because they were also disable. Also than they couldn’t do much things for themselves people have to help and keep them clean. Most people would not understand how disable people deal with because it is hard for them because the only thing they can do is sitting on wheelchair. And I couldn’t relate to this because I wasn’t disable but the only thing I can relate is being in a small class and learning was difficult for me being different than other people can’t catch up having a hard time to think and got called dumb by much more people. The reason I don’t think people should make fun of you just because you’re much more different than others we should all help each other out because no human are the same and overcome obstacles . Activism could also be like protecting one another during hard time like covid-19 even so when that happen Asian Elderly and Asian Americans were targeted and they don’t want to see their own family die just because of covid you shouldn’t blame Asian. Another thing that stands out to me in How To think Like An Activism by Wendy the quote on the side saying ” No matter what our age activism requires us to move beyond the right now, to consider how our actions today are shaping the world of tomorrow.” And all of us can use our personal spaces to create change. I like this quote because it can show us how our world is like today from how our action help us impact our everyday lives changing and helping others and our parents. Because we still face difficulties like climate change, people losing jobs and food sources and how stores have to shut down and we do schools online and having difficulties doing school online. Also how the internet and social media impacts us without these we wouldn’t know news that is happening nowadays people share and talk about when something happens.

In How To Think Like An Activst By Wendy Syfret, A quote that stood out to me was “Activsm is a powerful thing. It has the ability to change communities and lives, and recorder the way we think about our place in the world.” Activism is described as attempts to support, obstruct, guide, or interfere with societal, political, economic, or environmental reforms in order to achieve positive change. Activism is essential because it has played a significant part in the abolition of slavery, the protection of workers from mistreatment, the protection of the environment, the promotion of equality of the sexes, the opposition to racism, and many other vital problems. Through activism, there are several additional challenges that could be resolved. 

 Karinys Carrillo shared an image that stuck out to me; it depicted a little girl holding up a sign that says “Little girls with dreams become women with vision”, which reminded me of the girls and young women in Girl Connected.

The girls and young women in Girl Connected discuss the difficulties that women face in their country, such as being unable to attend school, being told to stay at home to cook, and clean, being pressured into arranged marriages to help support their families and more. 

Josie, a is a peer health educator from Pucallpa, Peru. After seeing schoolmates drop out of school due to teen pregnancy, she was encouraged to teach other young women about consent, pregnancy, and why it is important to use protection or to avoid sexual activity altogether. While Josie educates other women about their bodies, Michelle from Kenya battles gender prejudices every day, notably because there are only six girls in her class (including herself) she understands that education will allow accomplishing more to help the other girls and women in her family and community. 

Throughout the film, many of the girls state that they are often questioned about why they are advocating for young women and girls and the answer is that many women and other individuals desire to bring change so that women can feel and be empowered. They want women to go to school, to work, break away from, gender roles, to be inspired, and much more.

In addition, because of the many challenges we face today, we must advocate if we want to see positive change. We should also be open to helping one another and educating ourselves. There are many various types of activism that may be used to effect change, such as writing and addressing letters, organizing or participating in a political campaign, or avoiding certain businesses, and also demonstrative forms of activism such as rallies, strikes, or sit-ins. All of these are quite useful in terms of achieving significant improvement in our society.

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.

After reading the article How To Think Like An Activist by Wendy Syfret and watching one of the films that was on the list, I think that we been live in a world where we go through all these different movements like equal pay movement, black live matter movement, or the feminist movement. All of these different types of movements has affected the world by the change in society. I was actually looking the snapshots and the one that caught my eye was from Meiqi Chen because to me it shows like it was has to do with the equal pay movement. Also in the image I saw many women were protesting holding up posters with one of them say “Equal Pay for Equal Jobs”. Another thing I wanted to point out was the background of the image it seems as if they are protesting in there community and to me I say they are protesting is because of the signs and seems like they are walking even though we don’t know if that was happening in the image those are just my own inferences. The video that I decided to watch was Knock Down The House. It was interesting to me because I got to know more about the candidate Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez than what I already knew. Seeing her going back to back with the jobs she was working which were waitress and working on running for congress has showed me how she is a really hard worker and that we are all capable of doing anything. In the article How To Think Like An Activist by Wendy Syfret it talked about the feminism movement and how that history is still alive today. There was many inequality’s between both genders which then lead to women suffering and facing different type’s of issues like sexual harassment, equal pay and domestic violence. For example in the article How To Think Like An Activist by Wendy Syfret on page three it states, “Second- wave feminism has become known for focus systemic sexism, gender pay inequality, reproductive freedom and access to education. Here again, protest and marches were a huge part of the culture. The take back the Night events and marches that were held across the 1970s to draw attention to violence against women were particularly influential”. This part of the article is telling us that many women that have been through or are still going through with all of these types of movements are trying to have equal rights. Therefore in the article it explained each part of the feminism movement that also tells us how the generation has changed through out the years.

Another part of the article that stood out to me was when it was talking about the whole COVID-19 which is something we are facing today. For example in the How To Think Like An Activist by Wendy Syfret on page three and four it states, ” People from all over the world are confronting issues such as climate change, racial injustice, xenophobia and violence against women, people of colour and non-binary individuals. All of these causes have been impacted by the social and financial fallout of COVID-19 and the resulting shutdowns”. Therefore we can see that even today we are facing more issues.