The music video is about the importance of love and family and how both should be the structure of our country and evokes feelings of hope, possibility, and change. It is depicted that in a world of foremothers, all of which were gathered around a table in one scene, our country becomes structured on love, understanding, peace, and family. Americans and Native Americans fight side by side for peace instead of against each other, women become more rightfully acknowledged as leaders and heads of the country rather than submissive human beings of less importance, there is equal and fair representation for people of color. 

A line that seems to be of great importance and that summarizes the video is “Nobody wins when the family feuds.” I think that what this quote means, as far as the topic of America, is that America is one big family and if everyone is feuding instead of loving one another then no one gains anything and our country as a whole falls apart, just as a family or any kind of relationship would. This is the mantra or slogan that all of the foremothers’ ideas embodied as they all sit around a table and revise the Constitution to fit today’s world and a new structure that they lay down that ultimately creates a more peaceful world. 

In Jay-Z and Beyonce’s part of the video it appears as though Beyonce is the leader of the church, putting her above Jay-Z, and Jay-Z is confessing his sins to her. This, again, emphasizes representation and equality for women and even people of color. The cast in this video is also predominantly black and other people of color which depicts the rightful representation of people of color as leaders.

The quote at the beginning says “The wretched of the earth do not decide to become extinct, they resolve, on the contrary, to multiply: life is their weapon against life, life is all that they have.” My interpretation of this quote is that those who are unhappy with what they’ve done in life or with the cards that life has dealt them reproduce in hopes that their children will carry on their legacy in a better way than they possibly could both while they are alive and after their death.

My mother is a good mother by definition and by example. She is strong, protecting, loving, supportive, kind, generous, accepting, and she teaches me valuable lessons. She has helped me become who I am today.

My mother is a shoulder to lean on and one of my biggest encouragers but, just like any relationship, my relationship with my mother has had it’s bad points. We’ve had our arguments and fights, our disagreements. We’ve argued about school, work, choices that I’ve made, my lifestyle, etc. We don’t see eye to eye on everything but no one ever does.

As a child, my mother was like my best friend. I like to think that I was more like her as a child than my dad. I remember she would always take me places like the library and Blockbuster all the time. She also says that she chaperoned at a lot of my field trips but I don’t quite remember. Either way, my mom was present and active in my life.

As I got older, my relationship with my mother changed. She didn’t really change but I did. As a preteen and teenager, I didn’t tell my mom as much about what as going on with me. She asked how I was, I said “fine”. She asked what was going on, I said “nothing” or gave her very little information. I sometimes opened up to her about things that were going on or how I was really feeling but I didn’t do it a lot. I wasn’t completely closed off but she didn’t know a lot. But she was always there to talk. She always encouraged me to talk to her about things and she always asked questions. She consistently showed that she cared about what was going on and that when I was comfortable enough, I could talk to her. Bit by bit, she even got me to open up and talk more about my sexuality. She was still very involved in my life, too. She went to my marching band performances and parent meetings, she went with me to my therapy sessions, she was at graduation. She was there for the important things. As an adult, my mother is still very involved. I find her easier to talk to about things these days and she is someone that I go to for good and real advice. 

The main thing to take away from this is that a mother should be there for her children and support them. I believe that my mother has done that for me and I know she will continue to do it.

Works Cited

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=Cup3Wu6iFuTm5gKP9L2YAQ&q=mother%2Bdefinition&oq=mother%2Bde&gs_l=psy-ab.1.1.0l10.2168.7419.0.8390.12.9.1.1.1.0.176.960.6j3.9.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.11.985.0..46j0i131k1j0i46k1.0.vCRvEdkTpdk.

To have a Dominant/Agent Group identity means to identify as something, such as Male, that unfortunately oppresses one or more identities in our society, such as Female, that are called the Minoritized/Target Groups. I have the dominant identity of Male which oppresses the Female identity in society due to Sexism. In the Gender frame, I have the dominant identity of  Cisgender which oppresses the Transgender, Gender Queer, Gender Non-conforming, and Intersexed identities due to Transgender Oppression. In the Ability frame, I have the dominant identity of  Able-bodied which oppresses the People with Disabilities identity due to Ableism. I identify with the dominant identity of Non-Jew which oppresses the Jew identity due to Anti-Semitism. In the Nationality frame, I have the dominant identity of Citizen which oppresses the identities of Immigrant and Indigenous people due to Nationalism. Lastly, I identify with the dominant identity of Young which oppresses the Elderly identity due to Ageism.

To have a Non-Dominant/Minoritized/Target Group identity means to identify as something, such as Gay, that is unfortunately oppressed by one or more identities in our society, such as Heterosexual, that are called Dominant/Agent Groups. In the Race frame, I have the minoritized identity of Person of Color which is oppressed by the White identity due to Racism. In the Class frame, I have the minoritized identity of Working Class which is oppressed by the Middle Class and Wealthy identities due to Classism. Finally, I have the minoritized identity of Gay in the Sexuality frame which is oppressed by the Heterosexual identity due to Heterosexism.

Another one of the inventories that I looked at was the “Non-Trans Privilege or Cisgender Privilege List” which does apply to me. What surprised me about this list is that one of the bullet points said “If I end up in the emergency room, I do not have to worry that my gender will keep me from receiving appropriate treatment nor will all of my medical issues be seen as a product of my gender.” I was shocked at this because I didn’t realize this was a thing. I knew that people are highly discriminatory towards Transgender people but I didn’t realize this specific thing was an issue.

The next inventory I looked at was “the Heterosexual Privilege Checklist” despite being homosexual. One bullet point that stood out to me was “ People don’t ask me why I made my choice of sexual orientation.” I hate how a lot of people assume that we choose our sexuality but it is something that we don’t get to choose. It is just who we are. The way a lot of people see it is that we choose our sexuality just like we choose what shirt to put on in the morning. People think that we choose that “shirt” and that we’re just stubborn and want to stand out or follow a trend. People even try to force us to change our “shirt” to what they see as a normal through harsh, cruel, and extreme methods. Another thing that bothers me is the lack of representation for non-heterosexual people in the media (movies, tv shows, etc). It is getting better but it is not enough. Seeing a non-heterosexual character in a movie or tv show shouldn’t be something special in the sense that we need more representation to the point where it becomes normal to see non-heterosexual people in media. It would also be nice if people didn’t have to be so scared to come out and be express who they are. Because people are, “ [We] are [not] guaranteed to find people of [our] sexual orientations represented in [our] workplaces [or schools].”

The last inventory I looked at was the “White Privilege Checklist” despite being Latino/Hispanic. One bullet point that stood out to me was “When I am told about our national heritage or about ‘civilization,’ I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.” This country was not just built on the work of white people. This country is not maintained on the work of just white people. People of color have played just as important of a part in building and maintaining this country yet we are not given the credit we deserve. Another bullet point that set me off was “I can turn on the televisions or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.” Just like non-heterosexual people, people of color are underrepresented in media. There are even white people who are hired for roles that truly belong to people of color. We need to be represented more in the media. We need more diverse casts. We need to have people of color cast for the roles that are meant for them instead of white people being cast for those roles.

As far as class in this movie, the upper class is the most represented. However, Erik Killmonger, T’Challa’s cousin, represents a lower class than most of the other characters in the movie. This serves as a representation of some of the goals of feminism and, more so, womanism.

Black Panther features not only men in positions of power, status, and leadership, but women as well. One example is T’Challa’s mother, Ramonda, who is the queen of Wakanda. Another example is Okoye who is the general of T’Challa’s army of women warriors. There are also other women in power of their individual tribes.

One point of power in “When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” is when Patrisse comes out to her cousin Naomi. “And I look my cousin in the face and say to my cousin… I am Bi… I feel powerful [and] strong” (Khan-Cullors 79-80). This was a big moment of courage and power for Patrisse. Coming out is never an easy thing to do, especially when you’re already hated by people outside of your family for a different part of your identity. Another moment of power was when Patrisse pulled inspiration of the love and dedication of her father before he passed away. “... but somehow and unbelievably this man kept coming back… he kept trying… my father kept fucking trying” (Khan-Cullors 108). Although she felt loss, her father’s life and death gave her strength and motivation.

One of the biggest ongoing identity conflicts in our society is the conflict of racism. In “What Does It Mean to Be White”, Robin DiAngelo writes about how race is a major identifying factor, or frame, that helps us define our social identities. DiAngelo poses the question “How did your race(s) shape your sense of place in the world?” to get readers thinking about how their race has affected their sense of belonging and how they feel about themselves (38). This connects to Bhatti’s “Fair Game” because we see how South Asian American girls struggle with finding their place in the world due to their race. In the story “Fair Game”, Madiha Bhatti writes about how skin color makes a big difference in her culture and in America. “But I recognize what is at stake: South Asian daughters are being taught to hate their skin.” ;therefore, skin color is so important and crucial for South Asian girls that they are being raised to hate their skin if it’s dark or not fair because of how society views dark skin, and it’s dangerous (Bhatti 44). This connects to Alexie’s “Kind” because Native Americans were discriminated against and even tortured because of their skin color. In his story “Kind”, Alexie writes about the consequences and negative mental effects of being tortured and discriminated because of his race. “Or we fall in love with the white conservatives who wants to hurt us again… We reenact the racist torture and salvation in our beds” (Alexie 294). What Alexie means by this is that for Native Americans, it’s never over. They’re never relieved of the racism, the torture, the emotional damage, etc. It follows them, they recreate it, they pursue it.

Everyone struggles with identity at some point. Who am I? Where do I belong? Who am I? Who is like me? These are questions we all ask ourselves at some point or another. In her story “Redefining Realness”, Mock lets us in on her struggle of growing up transgender. “Growing up, I learned that being trans was something you did not take pride in; therefore, I yearned to separate myself from the dehumanizing depictions of trans women that I saw in popular culture” (Mock 14).  Mock talks about how trans women are often very misrepresented and made into a joke in the media, such as tv shows and movies, and she grew up trying to detach herself from that and prove that she’s just another person like anyone else. This story connects to Alexie’s “Forty Knives” because both authors had to endure a major struggle due to their identities. In his story “Forty Knives”, Alexie talks about how he struggled with poverty, death, and abuse because of inter-tribal relations and the fight between his tribe and white people. “Poverty was our spirit animal… our HUD house was and remains [half finished]... a wooden improvisation” (Alexie 3,7). Alexie is saying that the U.S. government provided his family, and other families in his tribe and other tribes, with poor housing and living conditions because they just didn’t care enough. “So yes, I grew up with murderers… there would be guests who’d raped adults [and] children… I’d be abused by one man… in my story, the villains were other Spokane Indians… my monsters had brown skin, with dark eyes, and they looked like me” (Alexie 13-14).  Alexie opens up about the rape, abuse, and murder that happened within his tribe that he had to endure or protect himself from. This story connects to Bhatti’s “Fair Game” because the author talks about the struggle of having brown skin and what has to be done to be perceived as lighter and beautiful. In her story “Fair Game”, Madiha Bhatti talks about the struggles of having brown/dark skin within her race and culture and in America. “I have cousins who are dark, and were aware from a young age that that was not a good thing to be” (Bhatti 43). Bhatti is saying that children learn really fast and young that having dark skin is seen as a bad thing and that they will struggle more their whole life because of it.

Self-worth is about how valuable you feel that you are to yourself, your family, a group, or the world based on your identity. In Roxane Gay’s book “Bad Feminist”, she analyzes how much value she brings to the feminist movement and whether or not she is doing a good job of representing it or not. “To freely accept the feminist label would not be fair to good feminists [because] if I am, indeed, a feminist, I am a rather bad one… I am a mess of contradictions” (Gay 314). Roxane is admitting to herself here that she doesn’t feel as though she is right to call herself a feminist or a model feminist. This connects to “How These Parents Are Raising Their Transgender Children” because the author talks about their level of self-worth regarding her labels. In Aisling McDermott’s article “How These Parents are Raising Their Transgender Children”, she discusses her coming out story and how her self-worth is based on how “I’ve always seen myself as someone with a lot of different identities and labels [and felt like] I had something to prove… I had to prove [something] to the world” (McDermott 1).

Identity is a critical matter in our society. Identity can be anything from race to gender and beyond. Struggles and questioning of self-worth can come from your identity or how people react to your identity.

Family is a very important theme in “When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” and brings forth a lot of pain and power for Patrisse throughout her life. Her father, Gabriel, who is “ honest and open and accountable in a way that is grounded, not reactionary” and his side of her family provided a lot of love that “filled us to overflow” according to Patrisse (Khan-Cullors 38, 39). Patrisse describes getting to know Gabriel and her newly found family members as a positive experience, saying that “I lean into him, my spirit does” (Khan-Cullors 41). Gabriel was like the glue that held the family together in the sense that “it is Gabriel everyone goes to… the original idea of the UN… he processes with them, pushes them to forgive, to choose love” which depicts power through love (Khan-Cullors 42). However, Patrisse experiences a lot of pain in her family as well. For example, she writes about Alton leaving: “Alton got a series of low-wage jobs that had no insurance, no job security and no way to take care of us, his family, which is why I think, looking back now, he left, and while he visited and was always there, it was never the same again” (Khan-Cullors 12). Her “mother would lock herself in the bathroom and cuss [Alton] to the heavens: Help me feed our children, Alton. Our. Children. What kind of fucking man are you?”; this specific instance shows clear signs of pain for both Patrisse and her mother (Khan-Cullors 12). She also writes about how her mother “will not ask me how I am feeling… or tell me how much she loves me… not a judgment of her… it is enough… for all of my childhood, this is just the way it is” (Khan-Cullors 19-20). Additionally, at the point when she found out that Alton wasn’t her real father, she begged God for it not to be the truth: “Can everything be the same? Please, God? Please?” (Khan-Cullors 30). Patrisse also had to sit and watch as her brothers were violently searched by the police for no reason: “I watch, frozen… I cannot cry or scream [or] breathe and I cannot hear anything… Why didn’t I help them?” (Khan-Cullors 15). She describes her brothers’ silence at afterwards as similar to “the way we often hear of the silence of rape victims” (Khan-Cullors 15). Finally, Patrisse experiences a great deal of pain watching Monte struggle with mental illness before, during, and after his first time jail. She does her best to try and help him, but it only causes him more pain: “He is sobbing… please don’t take me back… I tell the police to leave… I am so sorry, Monte, I say, my voice broken, my face wet with tears… I am so, so sorry” (Khan-Cullors 66). Patrisse feels pain and power after Gabriel’s death. She reflects on how “he kept coming back… my father kept fucking trying… spent every moment with me telling me how my Black life mattered” and comes to the conclusion that “if my father could not be possible in this America, then how is it such a thing as America can be ever be possible?” (Khan-Cullors 108).

A community is a flexible concept, as depicted by Patrisse. She believes that she can either accept who she is surrounded by as her community, or she can make her own out of the people of her choosing. In When They Call You A Terrorist, Patrisse talks about the pain and power within her given community and her chosen community. Patrisse’s chosen communities empower her throughout her journey on multiple occasions. She describes what being in the presence of the people in her chosen community feels like: “And I bring my friends along… they’re all there in the park with my family, watching the baseball games and eating barbeque and making noise and demonstrating proudly just what love and community look like in action” (Khan-Cullors 90). Patrisse receives a large quantity of love and power from this given community that she established with Gabriel and his side of her family, Mark Anthony, Carla, and many more of her friends. Later on, she also writes how “ from my intentional family -- Mark Anthony and Carla, Naomi and Tanya and Jason and Sarah and Katidia and Vitaly and more people than I can name here, I learned that nothing could break a community united, a community guided by love” (Khan-Cullors 129). She also shares in pain with her chosen community and receives support: “they, too, are grief stricken… we meet at my home… a multiracial group of roughly 15 dedicated to ending white supremacy… we process… we talk… we cry” (Khan-Cullors 167). While in high school, Patrisse comes out as bisexual and joins the Queer community in her school. It was very painful and still wasn’t quite as safe as it is in today’s world to be a member of the LGBTQ+, so her newfound community had to find a safe spaces. One of their safe spaces was a classroom at their school “where the Queer kids [had] taken up residence and made it our own safe space” (Khan-Cullors 81). They do this because “the streets are spilling with vitriol” so being completely who they are, out in the open, was not a safe idea. Patrisse recalls that even “at the turn of the century it is all Fuck, you faggot! And eyes filled with violence and disgust”, but she and Cheyenne stay together through the hatred and criticism that they face.

The relationship between pain and power is undeniable. With pain, comes power because we learn from the pain and turn our experiences into lessons that make us wiser and stronger. With power, comes pain because having or obtaining power can be hard and you might have to make sacrifices to gain it. In today’s society, many people are pulling power and strength from the pain of unfortunate events and using it to push for change. My perspective on Black Lives Matter remains the same. This is a crucial movement that fights against racism and discrimination, more crucial than some even realize, and it needs as much support as possible. It fights against the senseless slaughter of an entire race just because of their skin color. It fights against the injustice, the lack of security, the stereotypes, the inequality against individuals and families. Black Lives Matter allows people’s voices, cries, emotions, and fears to be heard. This movement was created for people to join together, as a chosen community, to make a change in a social system that has been oppressing black people for years and years without mercy. Change must occur.

One blog that represents sexual orientation is The Safe Space Network. The purpose of this blog is to create safe space for different groups of identities. A safe space is a place where people gather to exchange information about a group and support each other. On their blog, they have a list of terminology for sexual orientations, romantic orientations, and gender identities. They say that “everyone defines their orientation and identity differently, so it is our advice, that this is respected” which makes is a safe place for expression and information (TSSN). 

Another blog that represents sexual orientation is LGBT+ Support. The purpose of this blog is to support and inform members of the LGBT+ and allies through struggles with identity, mental health, etc: “This blog is for all people to come and find support. This blog is not just for people who fall under the LGBT+ spectrum (the spectrum includes EVERYONE), but allies as well. No phobia or hate here” (LS). An example of a post on their blog is a post they made about the meanings of each color on the Pride flag. The post reads: “Red: Life, Orange: Healing, Yellow: Sunlight, Green: Nature, Blue: Serenity/Harmony, Purple: Spirit” (LS). The post goes on to give information regarding the origin on the flag, saying “The first Rainbow Flag was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco artist, who created the flag in response to a local activist’s call for the need of a community symbol” (LS).

 There is a vast number of blogs on Tumblr that exchange many ideas, offer support, and tell many stories about users’ experiences with sexuality. One of those blogs is called The Safe Space Network and provides updated information on terminology for sexuality, gender, etc. Another one of those blogs is called LGBT+ Support and provides support and information for members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies as far as sexuality, gender, mental illnesses, etc. Overall, there is a lot of representation of sexuality on Tumblr.

LGBT+ Support. "Pride Flag Color Meanings." Tumblr. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2018. <http://lgbtsupportlove.tumblr.com/>.

The Safe Space Network. "Terminology." Tumblr. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2018. <http://safespacenetwork.tumblr.com/define>.