Growing up in my generation, I have become very passionate about advocacy and peer education. I became passionate about these things as a result of always being the minority in a room of those who know little about different cultures and diversity. I was always surrounded by people who only expanded their minds to what they new and never considered the other sides. Angela Rye is an African American woman who serves on the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee, and the Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network. On the 112th Congress, Rye served as the Executive Director and General Counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus and was tasked with developing the overall legislative and political …show more content…
Women like Rye work hard to ensure that that not only one majority holds valuable information. She wants to ensure that underrepresented people are aware and can make their own choices and decisions and not rely on the majority to tell them right and wrong. There is a position at my college called CommUNITY Educators. The role of a CommUNITY Educator is to educate the residents in the dorms about different aspects effecting our peers including race, gender, sexuality, politics, and world events. I am seeking this position because I am always seeking opportunities to speak and educated my peers about common issues in minority communities that other students may not be aware of or sensitive to. By seeking and using advocating tactics used by Rye and mimicking the confidence she shows while presenting herself, I have become more confident in myself while advocating. Advocating as a minority can be a difficult task because not matter what the cause, there will be those who undermine you and make you and your message seem irrelevant. Angela Rye does not allow for her work to be undermined and pushes until she has succeeded and does not stop when she does. This determination and resisting of resistance are on the surface of reasons why Angela Rye my African American
Success in high school requires years of hard work and dedication to excellence. During her four years at Holy Trinity, Yasmeen Ettrick has proved herself to be a successful, and dedicated member of the Holy Trinity community. Yasmeen Ettrick
As both Tracey Reynolds and Audre Lorde have emphasized, Black women are not perpetually passive victims, but active agents. It is totally possible for Black women to seize a form of empowerment, whether that be alternative education, or the creation of organizations that weren’t situated in either the Civil Rights movement or Women’s
In her book, A Voice from the South, Anna J. Cooper expressly addresses two issues: the participation of women in American society and America’s race problem. These are two issues very close to Cooper as an African American woman herself and she claims to speak for all African American women on these points. She argues that for America to be a truly democratic country that has freedoms for all people, it must have participation by women and blacks.
She claims that “men never doing no more, [get] twice as much pay,” therefore, she states that all women want “is a little money” (37). This particular point in her essay is intrinsically important because this is the essence of her argument: “When we [women] get our rights, we shall not have to come to you for money” (38). In other words, the author tries to persuade men that if women get their rights, everyone will benefit. As a final idea, Truth claims that not only black men should have the right to vote, but also black women because the time has come for “equal rights . . . since colored people have gotten their freedom” (38). One particular point that cannot be left out regarding this essay is that Truth takes a drastic religious approach to address human rights issues, to the point where she sees herself as the person appointed by God “to help break the chain” (38). To sum, in her call-to-action essay, Truth focuses on two rights: the right for women to keep their money and the right for black women to
Angela Yvonne Davis’ interest in social justice began during her youth when she was exposed firsthand to the hateful and violent consequences of racism. She was born on ...
After reading the “Introduction to Women’s Studies Concepts” power point the pieces from hooks, Hull and Smith, Kimmel, and Yap are important to feminist literature because they all talk about a different aspect of feminism. In Talking Back by Bell Hooks, the woman explains how it was not okay for her to speak or ask whatever she wanted. “In the world of the southern black community that I grew up in, “back talk” and “talking back” meant speaking as an equal to an authority figure” (1). In the past women were not allowed to just speak their mind it was ‘wrong’. This story demonstrates the black racism involved with feminism. People opened their ears to what the black men had to say, but they could easily block out what the black women had to say. The Politics of Black Women’s Studies by Hull and Smith also dealt with black racism taking place. The men were sexist and the white women were racist. Where did this leave place for the black women? In Men and Women’s Studies: Premises, Perils, and Promise by Kimmel sexism and racism. This short story talks about how women’s studies lea...
Hillary R. Clinton once said that “There cannot be true democracy unless Women’s voices are heard” (conference in Vienna, Austria 1997). That very brilliant quote relates to a very strong woman by the name of Maya Angelou. Angelou is “America’s most visible black female autobiographer and speakers” (scholar Joanne M. Braxton). She is known for her speeches, poems, and books, but what stood out to me the most was her 1993 inauguration speech when Bill Clinton was sworn into the White House. Ironically, in her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” Maya Angelou uses clear rhetoric, prehistoric metaphoric images, and inspirational concepts to alert her audience to treat the world differently.
The foundation of the initiative is creating opportunities for women of color to advance their education and here in the United States young women of color face some of the same challenges as their male counterparts but they also face many which are different. In regards to education, colored females face higher levels of discipline than both their male and white counterparts. Although Michelle Obama has declared that “Black girls rock (Crenshaw 27)” and President Obama has founded an initiative for colored boys, the lack of political involvement in addressing the challenges faced by women has appeared to put the interests of colored boys above those of their female
Gloria Steinem, a renowned feminist activist and co-founder of the women’s rights publication Ms. Magazine, gives a commencement speech at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, on May 31, 1970. Steinem’s speech “Living The Revolution” is delivered to the graduating class of Vassar College, founded in 1865 as a liberal arts college for women and then became coeducational a year before the speech was delivered in 1969. The intent of this speech is to inform the listeners and to shed light on the fact that women are not treated equally to their white male counterparts, though society has been convinced otherwise and to argue that it is crucial for all minorities, and even white males, to be relieved of their “stereotypical” duties in order for balance to exist. Steinem executes her speech’s purpose by dividing it up into four parts to explain the four different “myths” put against women while using a few rhetorical strategies and logical, ethical, and emotional appeals.
We live in a society with different cultures, races, and pathways for life.We currently live amongst a time where acceptance of others for who they are is clashing between those who are willing and not. This results in social reform groups and people taking initiative to fight for their rights. Nevertheless, this movement for gender, race, and class rights originates back to the 1800s, especially in 1851 with the delivered speech by Sojourner Truth. Thanks to social reform leaders and other feminists such as Truth, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Combahee River Collective, Rekia Jibrin and Sara Salem, we have made progress as a society through their intersectional speeches. The coined term “Intersectionality,”
Angela Davis grew up in an intellectual development. She was decisively influenced by the thinking of the communist’s organizations. Her mother was a federal leading officer and organizer of the Southern Negro Youth Congress which was heavily influenced by the Communist Party. As very young women she has applied to an American Friends Service Committees program who had the power to arrange that South black students were integrated in school in the North. She chose Elisabeth Irwin High Schools in Greenwich Village where she was introduced to socialism and communism. As a teenager Angela Davis organized interracial study groups, which were broken up by the
The black woman in the U.S. holds a precarious role: she is a woman, she is black and she is quickly becoming the dominant force of her people. The black woman is increasingly the sole bread winner in her household because she is forced into that position because of the...
Over the summer I had the pleasure of reading Off the Sidelines: Speak Up, Be Fearless, and Change Your World written by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Senator Gillibrand is not only a brilliant politician, but also an inspiration to all women in the fight for equality. She is a true feminist, in the belief that all people are equal man and women of any ethnicity deserve the right to equal pay and opportunity. Currently, a man earns more than a woman in a professional setting for doing the same job. To rectify unfair situations such as the wage gap and beyond, more women need to speak out and have their voices be heard. Senator Gillibrand’s book does a great job of motivating women to strive for greatness and never backdown to a challenge.
... assuming responsibility to actively give up the privileges bequeathed by these systems,…U.S. feminists embark upon dismantling” (Elkholy, 2012) these institutions. The only confusion left is in the fight “against systems of domination and exploitation” (Elkholy, 2012). Those suffering from ‘mostly’ examined racism would say they are fighting against these systems. However, as stated before, these ‘feminists’ almost never listen to the needs and concerns of those they are trying to assist and, therefore, cannot adequately help. The best thing to do in these situations is to ask oneself: ‘Did I listen to their stories and concerns?’ and ‘Who will benefit?’. In reality, these are questions all feminists should ask themselves while helping a group with different concerns than their own. The paths traveled may be different but our end goal, general equality, is the same.