After watching Paris Is Burning and reading The Combahee River Collective Statement, I was left a little confused by identity politics and “the person is political”. I read over Prof. Waychoff’s explanation from last week and thoroughly read her briefs of this week’s material but was still not able to fully grasp the difference between politics and Politics. – I get the gist, that this is separate from governmental Politics but zeros in what surrounds us in our everyday lives. I had to do some Googles to give me examples.

Once I attained a deeper understanding of these terms and their differences, I was able to see how they correlate with the text and the video. The reading opened my eyes to the injustices Black women face, and how their value in society comes from that shared belief- being that their identity represents the politics they care about. They state “No other ostensibly progressive movement has ever considered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression.” This led to the creation of separate Black feminist groups such as the NBFO. We also read about how Black feminism was not accounted for in comparison to white women advocating for the same thing, if not more.

When watching Paris Is Burning, one of the house mothers said something that really stood out to me; “The mother is the hardest worker, that is why she is the mother of the house.” – Instead of assuming the father or the male role as the strong figure. On top of that, these were men and transgender women recognizing and truly believing that the mother is the leader of the house, thus utilizing that as their leader titles for the ballroom. I loved this film, it was so beautiful to see these people live out their ultimate dreams of beauty and fashion mixed with music and voguing. It truly felt like a safe space for them to be who they are without hiding.