First, I watched the documentary Paris is Buring. I have watched this before as I am a huge fan of documentaries. Paris is burning introduces us to the world of Ball’s Where the gays and the they’s live their best fantasies and are excepted for who they are. They have in a way created their own sense of government, housing, and income. We learn about the house mothers and how they take care of their children who most have been kicked out of their homes due to their sexual orientation and their sexual identities. Many of the house mothers came from poverty and have had to fight for their lives. Learning the in’s and out of the gay community. To be a house mother is the greatest honor, it means that you have looked out for those in need and have steered the children in the right direction. They live for these balls and the competitions; it gives them a sense of purpose and value. They came from nothing and have created some of the biggest movements in dance, which was voguing. Later, we know Madonna profited off the Black and brown communities.  

Now after reading the Combahee River collective, we see how once again Black women must venture off and create their own activist communities. They go into how Black women have always faced adversities, discrimination, oppression. When it comes to Black women and if you are a queer Black person, you get the bottom of the barrel experiences. Black women have had to fight for their right to live and to be able to make a living. The fact that Black women are taught as kids to be silent, so they seem more lady-like in the eyes of the oppressor is truly heartbreaking. They have come together so that the world can realize that the liberation of Black women is just as important as the liberation of any other oppressed group. We can all agree that Black women are the ones who have created huge liberation movements and they are the only ones who can get things done within themselves. They deserve the respect, and the care other groups get. Black queer people are also oppressed, and this is a change that needs to happen. We need Black women and the importance of Black women in communities need to be valued because they are irreplaceable.  

Paris is burning and the Combahee River collective is very much the same situation, communities who have had to pave the way for themselves and who have had to fight tooth and nail for what is rightfully theirs.