Activism is the action of using campaigning to bring political or social change. Throughout history, we can see how so many activist folks and movements have impacted and shaped our society today. Without these brave individuals, many of us would be living in the same torment and sufferings as many of our ancestors. This week’s reading “How To Think Like An Activist” by Wendy Syfret, uses great examples and historical timelines to portray this set of events to the reader. 

In this week’s reading, Syfret goes into detail about the activist women movements that have happened throughout history that have impacted our society today. In the reading, they explain the timeline of women activist movements. The first movement happened in the late 19th century and it was a movement demanding the right to vote for women and our latest movements have been the Black Lives Matter movements and movements for women reclaiming their bodies, and since then, women have continued movements fighting, demanding and requiring rights, including basic human rights. Throughout history, we see how far we’ve come along with gaining rights as women in society but still doesn’t make it morally correct that we have to physically, mentally, and emotionally fight for our basic human rights, like having a say in our own reproductive system. At the end of the day, all these issues that have been brought up and fought for go back to white male supremacy and how they fear losing the power they once had. This is why, today, we as women still have to fight for equal pay, equal treatment in the workplace and so many more basic human rights that shouldn’t even be a topic of debate, let alone sometimes a political and controversial topic. 

This week, there were so many great snapshots posted by my fellow classmates that caught my eye in relation to activism. The one that stuck out to me the most was a post made by Hillary. In this post, we see a woman in a kind of protest where they have a banner up and are protesting and fighting for women to have fundamental human rights. It stuck out to me because, whether you are the most feminist person out there or not, women or not, POC or not, there is no reason why as women we have to literally fight to gain the most basic, fundamental right we deserve as humans. There is no way why we need to fight for equal pay in the same exact job position as a male. There is no reason for us to fight for rights over our own organs over laws, rules, and regulations that were made by individuals who never and will never have the organ they are trying so hard to take control of. So far in history, we have been able to see some changes in certain aspects of this. Until we receive all the fundamental rights we deserve as human beings on earth, we shall not stop these movements. 

I found this week’s readings, “There Is No Hierarchy In Oppression” by Audre Lorde and “Patriarchy, the System, An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us” By Allan G. Johnson and continuation on Oppression and Privilege very interesting. Like I mentioned last week, oppression always narrows down to the root of racism and hierarchy created with the white cis-gendered men. Throughout both texts, we can see this “theory” evolve through history and personal experiences. 

“There is no hierarchy of oppression” (There Is No Hierarchy In Oppression, Audre Lorde, pg 1) To me this quote means that there is no oppressed group being more oppressed than others. Every oppressed group faces the same oppression one way or another. And there is no way someone can fight oppression being a part of a certain group and feel freedom in another. When one identity idd targeted and oppressed, all of you are being oppressed. Johnson also has a great example that feeds into Lorde’s point. It states “There is poverty and class oppression because the upper classes are greedy, heartless and cruel” This comes to show that in the hierarchy, there will always be a common denominator, which is lower classes and in these classes, we will see them sharing a lot of similarities. The reason being is, taking the train back throughout history, the higher/wealthier classes were the ones with all the power due to this status. They would humiliate all other classes below them who weren’t so fortunate, and unfortunately, these lower classes consisted of people of color, uneducated, and poor people. This is exactly the point that Lorde was making on how once one of these categories is oppressed, they are all under the same attack of oppression. On the topic of oppression, another example we can look at is, in Johnson’s writing, they speak about when we think of “Patriarchy” we ALL automatically think of men’s privilege and their oppression of women. Unfortunately with time, the power of men never died down, it actually grew as they would reclaim the power of their ancestors and fight with the current laws established for equality to keep that patriarchy and oppressive side going. 

With this week’s topic, I really enjoyed the snapshots posted by my fellow classmates. Before I elaborate on someone else’s piece, I wanted to elaborate a little more on mine. I chose an image of a white man and a woman of color about to compete in the same race with the same distance to the finish line. However, the only difference was that for the woman of color, the path had way more obstacles than for the white man. Just like in real life, where minorities have to face so many challenges to reach the same exact goal/finish line as the privileged people of society, white males. In the image, the man is telling the woman that the distance is the same in a sarcastic way, without fully understanding why the woman is upset at her path. This also happens in our society where the more privileged people don’t understand the other people’s struggles and are quick to judge and call others lazy when they don’t see how many more obstacles they have in their path to reach the same goals, no matter how big or small they can be. Another classmate’s post that I really enjoyed was by Ceranlly Rodriguez. Their post was an image of a woman being “shushed” by different hands with all sorts of comments and questions. Unfortunately, this happens to women all over the world where women are oppressed and shut out of their truth. No matter what a woman goes through, there will always be that privileged comment about the victim or just women in general, doubting their truth and questioning a set of unfortunate events. This image ties back to both of this week’s readings and I enjoyed making the connection with all 3 documents. 

This week’s readings “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh and “Oppression” by Marilyn Frye were very interesting. Oppression can always be narrowed back down to early history where white males were ‘superior’. They had power over women, as women were stay-at-home wives up until recent history, and they also had power over people of color, as unfortunately, they were slaves to these white males. Throughout the years, history may have changed, people were freed and new laws were made, but there’s one thing that never changed, white male supremacy. 

Oppression is very systematic. It all narrows down to history and the white man supremacy. This is why we now see how the white man unconsciously oppresses women at the workplace, etc. Peggy elaborated on this in their writing “White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack”, when stating that white privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special maps, passports, clothes tools, etc. In simple terms, White privilege isn’t visually seen, other than the person being white, but there’s no visual to it, it’s just always there to come in handy whenever it’s needed. The sense of supremacy has been taught throughout the generations leading up to this point. Throughout the years there have been laws that prevent such things to happen, however, they have been systematically placed to look like they are helping, however when you dig just a little bit deeper, you realize they were never there to help you. A great example of this is the Grandfather’s Clause Law back in the early 1890s. This law allowed people of color voting rights, only if their grandfather was allowed to vote. Knowing history we know that for this time, the grandfathers in question were slaves at the time and did not have the right to vote. This prevents nearly every person of color the right to vote, even though the system made it seem like they were trying to give them voting rights. The same thing happens today, unconsciously or not, there’s a system in place that makes it look like there’s equality all around, however, actions and other factors prove otherwise. 

With the topic of white supremacy in mind, a classmate, Kevin Kimble, has a great post that relates to it and the way both I explained this and Peggy did in their writing. In short, Kevin’s post says that being white doesn’t mean you don’t have struggles and difficulties in your life, it simply means that the color of your skin isn’t one of the factors making it harder. This ties back to what I was previously explaining about how even unconsciously the white privilege isn’t acknowledged. It’s simply being carried with you and comes in handy when needed, but because it’s there, you’ll never experience the other side of the coin. 

  This week’s reading “Beyond The Gender Binary” By Alok Vaid was very interesting and eye-opening. This reading expanded on the daily struggles the LGBTQ+ community, specifically speaking on gender non-conforming and non-binary folks face on a daily basis. While reading this excerpt, I found myself in total shock. I was aware that this community, unfortunately, faced a lot of struggles because of how they chose to identify, however, I was not aware of its extent. 

In this reading, Alok explains many points that I found very interesting. The first point that caught my eye was when Alok explains that the majority of the conversations surrounding the topic of gender non-conforming and non-binary people are mostly about people’s views and opinions on the topic rather than these people being able to open up about and sharing their personal experiences. This is almost like a backhanded space for them. They portray this image of a safe space for these people to be able to express their experiences and feelings but are actually made to be spaces for others to drop their unprompted opinions. Another point that caught my eye was when Alok explained how the bias and discrimination against this community are not only continuing but also being given a “green light” or the OK for it to be done with no consequence. Throughout the years there have been multiple rules and laws against discrimination with punishments that can lead up to jail time, however when it comes to this topic, that goes out the window. So much for equality right? Lastly, I found it very interesting when Alok states that local, state, and federal levels have been targeting these specific groups of people by denying them healthcare, banning them from public accommodation, and much more. Some places have even banned them from being protected by civil law. There should be no reason – with no exception, to why people-just like everyone else can’t have the same medical coverage, go to certain public events, or even be protected by their own legal civil rights only due to how they chose to express themselves and love who they want. Why are people so pressed on other people’s love life? Seriously though, how do someone else’s love life and identity affect you. I always said if it’s not going to pay your bills, why to pay so much mind to it. Let people love who they love, be who they want to be, and keep it pushing with your life. 

With the topic of identity in mind, there was a snapshot posted by a classmate, Kevin Kimble that I enjoyed and thought would go great with this response. This snapshot was two pictures of Jaden Smith. In one picture, Jaden was wearing a dress, and in the other picture, a skirt. In this image, Jaden is breaking the gender role that men need to dress up in suits and ties or jeans and a basic tee, while women can only wear dresses/skirts. Wearing these outfits doesn’t make Jaden any less of a man nor does it change their identity, it simply means they are comfortable wearing this and are able to express themself this way. Clothes are meant to be worn as a form of expression of yourself. This is how a lot of people express themselves and their creativity while also being comfortable. There should be no gender role and there is no need to bash someone or make them feel any less of themselves due to what they feel comfortable wearing.