Hannah Barker

Clare Bright, Honors 394

Final Thoughts
Coming into this class, I had very limited knowledge of the three movements
we covered. In high school, the perspective of history that was taught was from the
perspective of the privileged people in America straight white men. I signed up for
the class to further educate myself on topics that I was woefully unfamiliar of. I am
still working on grasping clear concepts of all that was covered in class (e.g. Queer
Theory), but I have already changed my mind and clarified my opinion on many
topics. I have divided the three movements below and will address specific changes
I have experienced in my mindset toward these movements.
Civil Rights Movement
Three months ago I had almost no knowledge about the Civil Rights
Movement. All I had learned about in school was about Martin Luther King Jr. and the
march on Washington for equal rights. I had heard the Black Panthers be mentioned,
but I was never explained what their position was or how it was relevant to the
entire movement. The same goes for the Nation of Islam, and all of the
people/organizations involved in the later 1800s until the 1960s. One large reason I
signed up for this class was to learn more about this movement so I could navigate
my own thoughts about the theory that I most supported. Since I only had one
perspective to go off of coming into the class, I was always partial to the preaching
done by MLK. Since learning about some of the more radical movements, I see
definite merit in their efforts to achieve equality. I admire the Black Panthers and
others within the Black Power movement for taking a very strong stand against the

police and unfair treatment of African Americans by white society. The community
effort and support that these organizations gathered were very admirable. I will
never stop appreciating the message of love that came from MLKs words, but I can
see value in the radical approaches to really try to force the hand of those in power
to make meaningful and lasting changes. Unfortunately, I feel like this method felt
threatening to those who did not want to relinquish power, and therefore there was
much counter effort to see Black Power fail.
Feminist Movement
Largely due to the media on feminism today, I had only been exposed to
liberal feminism before taking this class. I believed that liberal feminism was the
one true feminism in a way and I did not understand that it was just one of many
forms and perspectives that women and allies stand behind. In a perfect world, I
would take little pieces of every perspective on feminism and implement them in
society to achieve my version of utopia. However, I do see fault within the feminist
movement of being mostly lead by white, middle-class, straight females. I just so
happen to belong in that category, so I did not recognize my own privilege in this
context until it was pointed out to me during the course of this class. Because of
this new insight, I am seeing myself shift from a half liberal half radical feminist to a
feminist who supports whole-heartedly the development of intersectionality. I see
that every individual faces many different challenges that cannot be explained by
one perspective. That in itself seems very oppressive; to have a movement for a
group of people, but not recognize each individuals struggles within the group. I
hope to empower women through my life and career, but I need to remember to put
everything into a greater context. I am grateful for this reminder of perspective and
I have gained this insight through discussion in this class.

Gay Rights Movement

It was fascinating to learn about the Gay Rights Movement, because it seems
to be the most talked about movement in current times. Important court decisions
relevant to gay rights are documenting the progress or regress of the movement
right now. That being said, although I have tried to follow the movement in real
time, I had not given much thought to the different perspectives and groups within
the movement. I was familiar with the liberal gay approach, possibly because it
seemed to be the simplest to understand and incorporate into society. Additionally, I
had heard of the word queer, but I never exactly knew what it meant. Now I feel as
though I understand it better, but I am not sure if I fully grasp queer theory. I found
the incorporation of postmodernism into the argument to be very convincing since I
was roughly familiar with some of these ideas from a sociological theory class, but I
find it hard to put one hundred percent of my support behind a movement which
presents a defeatist argument from the beginning. A movement which claims
nothing can be done to change the society causing the issue being addressed is
never going to make change, unless exceptions to their premise are allowed.