This week’s notes, and film, brought back so many emotions from the past. As I’ve stated in my discussion post, I was extremely fortunate enough to have participated in some of the world’s largest demonstrations in hopes to make change for a better future. “Knocking Down the House” is a film that I have been meaning to watch for a long time (I’m a huge fan of AOC), but have never gotten around to it. Being a native New Yorker myself who has grown up watching how unfair and belittling it is having to watch people ask for basic human rights, I was extremely moved by this group of fearless women. I can only imagine how intimidating it is for a woman to go up against men who have experience running in various campaigns. The four Democratic candidates made worthy, clear, and concise arguments in expressing the needs of the people.

In this week’s notes, it was incredible to revisit the many movements that took place before my time and allowed the doors to open for these fearless activists. Without activism, many of the rights we have gained as citizens in this country would have never been made possible. Taking a stand, even in the darkest of times, was worth everything and more. As stated in this week’s notes under, How Activism Made the Modern World, “We can pay our respects to those brave individuals by studying their achievements, learning from them, and carrying on their world-changing work now and into the future.”, and that’s exactly what I will strive to do.

Before this class I had heard of activism, I feel like have heard of this word at least once in our life. many of the things we have today like laws were all passed because of an activism movement. just now in my English class I’m learning about the activism movement of Martin Luther King, rosa parks, and many more. how in a time of segregation he fought to have that law lifted cause we should all be treated equal no matter our skin color. in this class reading the excerpts from “how to think like an activist” made me think more in about what should be done and what it takes. many women have taken the initiative to start a movement to fight against something that doesn’t seem fair. in the reading it talks about how activism is different and in a way better now because we have social media, we can post photos or videos and we can use hashtags like the BLM movement . I was thinking how this reminded me of the activist movement that’s going on in Mexico , these are women fight for a cause , they fighting against femicide. in Mexico hundreds of women go missing everyday, some days they turn up dead , rare times they come back alive and most likely they would never be found. many women are using hashtags and peaceful protest for the government to do something about this, many times women who are protesting whether is peaceful are not end up in jail or detained just for being there. every year on women’s day thousands of women march for a cause and that’s the mind of an activist , educating others on topics the have little to no knowledge of and try to come all together to fight injustice. that’s what I understand that an activist Is.

Watching “Vessel” was extremely eye opening for me. I always put my attention to women’s rights in the U.S, forgetting that other parts of the world are going through similar situations. I think it was courageous to start “Women on Waves”, especially considering the risks. What I didn’t appreciate was how men reacted to it. They want to save human life, but are disrespecting the life already here. It was completely unnecessary to egg the women and yell at them. Many signs of oppression were In this documentary, but the women fought it. It really brought to life how many women are suffering in places where it’s illegal, to the point where “Women on Waves” were being sent emails asking when they will arrive. The reporters questions were also inappropriate. For example, one of the reporters asked if Rebecca has ever had an abortion, as if that was relevant. What I took from this documentary is women’s rights needs more than words to progress. The U.S is a first world country that has extreme privilege compared to others. If a group of citizens were able to help women on water, I feel that the U.S can be doing a lot more. Activism here is mostly through words, and then the topic is forgotten. I understand that not everyone can sail ashore, but more protests IRL and awareness through the media can be done. The Black Lives Matter movement became a movement because of work put in. Women’s rights are too easily talked about and then swept under the rug. The reading states how combining IRL and online can cause for activism that actually makes a change.

Activism is acting out to create a change in a person’s community/culture. It takes courage to be an activist against society that is unfair. I  say this because people like Gandhi, who held a peaceful march, take bravery. This man went against the British Empire. An empire that has tons of manpower, land money, power, access to anything they desire, etc the list goes on. Yet, Gandhi still decided to go against them to free his land of fellow Indians.There is no better way to describe what an activist is than Gandhi. Personally I would have been way too scared to even speak up for myself let alone thousands of unfreed people who are scared to speak up for themselves. Nor will I disobey the rules step in store to control my people and I. Activism has always been a part of the world. From the French Revolution to a variety of protests for police brutally on black individuals. Activists are the voice of the people, the people who can’t speak up or are too afraid to. Watching the film “United in Anger” really opened my eyes to how AIDS and the American government dealt with it. The most inspiring thing about it all was gay men were protesting, while dying from AIDS. Trying to create a change for others to come after them. Not going out without a fight is very moving to me. Some protests were peaceful while others were more violent. The group “Act up” worked hard to influence change and how the government treated AIDS patiences. The work they did was amazing to me, to spend the last days of your life fighting against the thing that is killing you. Although activists such as Martin Luther King or Gandhi were assassinated for their acts in the fight for their human and racial rights. Her work certainly made an impact on today’s society.