My thoughts on this week’s readings and the film. Well about the film I would say that the film shows the intersectionality of race, class, gender expression, and sexuality in a marginalized New York community. See how members of the subculture use positive means of expression rather than violence, yet they are still targets of discriminatory violence. The discrimination against colored and trans people. I think that people in this film are almost portrayed as objects and that the audience might feel as if they have more power, they will feel better about themselves because they have money and status. In the reading, this being that black women have always had a negative relationship with the system of white rule because of their “membership in two oppressed racial and sexual castes,” but shows that both sexual identity and racial identity have combined to make their struggles unique in some way.

Reading “The Combahee River Collective Statement” helped me understand the oppression that black women have been facing for decades. The Combahee River Collective Statement is a group consisting of Black feminists and have been together since 1974. They struggle against many topics like sexual, heterosexual, racial, and class oppression. There are many famous well known Black women activists like Harriet Tubman, Mary Church Terrell, and Sojourner Truth. All these women have brought awareness to their sexual identity and racial identity in order to help the rest of these women struggling in their oppression. These women were a stepping stool to everyone else who was too scared of judgement for speaking out and fighting for liberation. There was a group of Black feminists called the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) created in 1973 and based in New York. Movements like Civil Rights, Black Panthers, and Black nationalism helped changed Black peoples lives based on their goals and ideas for these movements and what did they did in order the reach their goals. The oppression that Black women face doesn’t allow them to experience and learn new knowledge to help them grow as a person. This is unfair because no one should be restricted from broadening their knowledge and experiences in life. I agree that women are valuable and a necessity for the human life, therefore, we shouldn’t be treated otherwise. We can fight for our own oppression but it would also be helpful for men to want to help us and fight as well.

When reading “Combahee River collective” it was known to be black feminism, especially among lesbian who is black. In 1974 black feminists have join together to involve the process of defining and clarifying their policies. They begin to explain the history of the historical reality of Afro-American women’s continuous life and death survival and their negative relationship to the American political system. The Collective argued that both the white feminist movement and the Civil Rights Movement were not addressing their particular needs as Black women and, more specifically, as Black lesbians. When reading this article they were powerful and motivated to have the right to say their needs and their desire as a black woman or black lesbians. This decade there wasn’t focusing on the feminist movement until the 1980s. There have been problems that went on in the black feminist organization, an example according to the article was, “We have tried to think about the reasons for our difficulties, particularly since the white women’s movement continues to be strong and to grow in many directions.” She explains that no matter how strong the black feminism organization is, the white women’s movement is getting stronger than the black feminism organization. No matter what movement white women are fighting for, in the black feminism’s point of view it seems like they are at the bottom when they’re trying to gain the political’s attention just to have the same equal rights just like everyone else. I believe that black feminism needs to be introduced more and for people to be education about the black feminism.

As I watched Paris is Burning, the film sheds light on the era’s black and Hispanic LGBTQ community in New York City and their lives in the underground drag ball competition. It demonstrates how integral it is to current pop culture, where “voguing” “Yasss Queen!” were born. Paris Burning also reveals the many ways in which gay communities of color have constructed their worlds in order to cope with their oppression. Although the film is not all glitz and gold. Paris is Burning also reveals the darker realities of many of its subject lives, including how difficult it can be to simply survive.

The Combahee River Collective made me think about myself as a black woman and how we are viewed in society. It is interesting because as a black woman people do tend to view us as hostile and angry, but never take into account why we have developed such a hard exterior. When in reality every action has  a reaction a change needs to be made so we are not made to feel we have to be so defensive and aggressive you get what you give honestly. On another note “Paris  is Burning” was very interesting to watch and informative. After speaking to a friend he told me the show “POSE” was actually based around this documentary. That made me think about how much I enjoyed the show not understanding it held so much more meaning prior to my new found knowledge !

I feel as thou suppression of a certain disenfranchised people or exploitation of the underprivileged breeds creativity. These lashes of injustice are actually the ingredients of creativity. Such in the case with Paris is burning, they created there own studio , dances, fashion there own slang. Which like all things new and urban eventually gets put on the radar of some corporate office who then steals it, markets it and calls it something else. It was heartbreaking, funny and the usual story of how these people negatively impacted by social issues instead of taking it out on the world decided to construct their own world, I really applauded that. That soundtrack thou, I was dancing while watching it . It occurred to me that good music is another element that can bring people together no matter the ethnic or sexual background . I had no idea house music was made popular in gay night clubs I just knew I loved the music still to this day.

I really give it to the black feminists, because like i had previously stated , they don’t just march in their own rallies but everyone else as well which i feel needs to be more publicized in my opinion .

The reading “THE COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE STATEMENT” and the film Paris is Burning was really interesting to explore, especially when being paired together this week. Both explore racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, in addition to featuring identity politics and how it creates radical politics. Paris is Burning was really fascinating as we got to actually see a lot of these things actively play out, and accurately portrayed the oppression of many groups of people due to their race and sexuality. “THE COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE STATEMENT” very directly analyzes the oppression of Black women and the role, beliefs, and practices of contemporary Black feminism, including the issues that are being faced, and even their herstory. These issues are obviously not prioritized. This made sense to me as that is also how I felt when watching Paris is Burning.

After this week’s reading, I thought a lot about how people treat black women. Something I noticed that’s very common in black households is the shaming of young black girls. When a black girl reaches a certain age and begins to develop her body, her mother becomes more hostile towards her. I’m not sure where it came from, but I’ve noticed the pattern. We’re often told to cover up, especially when certain family members come over. This is probably why there are so many black women who were “touched” as children growing up. When I was a preteen, I wasn’t even allowed to wear tights because people might look at me. That never made any sense. The problem wasn’t me. It’s the grownups who think it’s okay to look at a child’s body. Black girls are often taught to be ashamed of their bodies. When I got my period, I was always told to hide my box of pads or pretend that I was sick and not on my “period.” For years, “period” was a dirty word among guys, and my family frequently tried to hide our menstrual cycles from the men in our family for fear of making them uncomfortable. But periods are normal, so we shouldn’t have to hide them. Many of my friends had the same experience too, being told that their cycles were shameful. I find it rather ironic that we get treated that way growing up because it’s the complete opposite as we get older. Nowadays, a black woman has to be sexualized to be deemed attractive. Especially if you are dark-skinned. By society’s standards, we have to have voluptuous curves, big breasts, and a big butt to be pretty. We have to have a buss down weave or an afro with loose curls. We have to look perfect all the time. We can’t do messy buns. The world is very biased towards black women, and they need to do better. This isn’t a society that I would want to raise my future children in. I hope we see more movements fighting for us in the coming years. 

This week’s activities were interesting for the simple reason that the documentary “Paris is burning” was a great visualization of events that happened during the 1980s. It was a fantastic way to demonstrate the oppression trans, gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and others show themselves, I must say it was sad that some of them said that they really want to be famous and live out their opportunity and this was a way to display that. The ball and vogue culture that was demonstrated was such amazing it showed the artistic side of all of them before they go back to their lives where they are discriminated against and oppressed. I enjoyed reading “The Combahee River Collective Statement” because it specifies what contributes to the oppression color women face. The organization was made because color women did not think that the feminist movement and civil right movement involved and meet the Black and lesbian women needs. Overall, both the film and the reading introduce topics that are usually ignored by many because they are never spoken about. This brought knowledge to subjects I really did not have much information about.