Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

In looking for ways to change the world, I became incredibly interested in social justice. Being both a woman and a person of color, I was particularly interested in feminism and anti-racism. My views on both of these things have changed dramatically since the beginning of the year, and this is evident in my work. Take the first thing I ever wrote for English as an example. In this piece, I talk about a classmate telling me that I talk “white”. I go on to say

“Apparently intelligence is a white trait. I was offended, as a black person, because that was one of the most racist things that I had ever heard in my life. She wasn’t the only black person to say something like this to me, I’ve heard it countless times from countless people”

Looking back on this piece, I laugh at how naive I was. My classmate was simply pointing out the cultural differences between me and other black people, and I chose to interpret it as her being racist. The change in my views is evident in my Language Autobiography. In this paper, I write about the same incident:

“This isn’t what she (my classmate) meant. I know that now. She was referring to my language. I don’t speak in Ebonics, Black Vernacular, African American English, or anything of the sort. But, probably due to some internalized racism, I associated speaking in Ebonics with being dumb, and (indirectly) I associated being black with being dumb.”

It’s really interesting to look back on these two pieces because they illustrate my transformation.

I’ve also changed my views on feminism and what it means to me to be a feminist. In January, we did our Lit Lens project. In this project, we had to choose a “lens” through which we would view the novel we were reading (Their Eyes Were Watching God), and re-enact a scene. My partner and I chose the feminist lens, and we decided to take a more parodic approach. In my reflection, I talk about what feminism means to me.

“The dictionary defines feminism as “the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” I couldn’t have said this better myself (which is why I used the dictionary)”

This is something I don’t agree with anymore. I believe that feminism is about the women , and only her. If we continue to look at women in relation to men, then we will continue to be oppressed. I wrote about this a lot on my journals, which can be found here and here