Sanaa India LaCore
12/3/20
This Course led me to the realization that I am more of a leader than I once believed myself to be. Before taking this class, I thought that I didn’t know how to take charge or be a leader because I might not have enough knowledge. However, upon reflection at the end I’ve realized that leaders don’t always have answers for everything either and that it is okay to still be learning along with everyone else involved. I have learned that the capacity to lead isn’t a personality trait but it comes from perseverance and the desire to help others through your cause. Just like Carruthers mentioned in Unapologetic, your inclination to help a cause is your identity and personal experiences which is something else I discovered through this course. Identity politics play a big role in what we label as important and what we prioritize and I’ve begun to learn ways to prioritize myself and the causes I find important because of this class. The work I have done in this class has helped me reflect on my individual identity by exposing me to feminist activist groups that have people who actually look like me represent things that I care about. This class has helped me dive deeper into celebrating my identity by showing historical representation such as the Combahee River Collective and showing that no matter how much systems have tried to oppress underrepresented groups, we always shine light through gaps and it has shown how much progress has already been made even while we activists are still striving towards more reform and change. I also appreciated the strengths finder assessment we took during this class because it allowed me to gain insights on different parts of myself and put some of my strengths into definition. I also liked how we had an in class discussion about this which furthered my understanding of my strengths and let everyone gain outside perspectives on our individual strengths that I know I had not personally thought of before. This course promoted the valuable idea that everyone’s strengths individually might not seem like much, but in collaboration with others, one can see how each of our pieces and various perspectives play a part in a bigger, even better framework such as Engage Police (my group’s final project paper and presentation). Lastly, this class has taught me that leadership comes with power and those in power should always be held accountable and acknowledge their actions. When we want leaders to be held accountable, we have historical examples and current examples like ACT UP and #metoo that show people collaborating and sharing their experiences to encourage people to hold those in power responsible for their actions. This course has also shown me that power comes not just from leaders, but from groups that want change and band together in collective efforts to make a difference and get things done; to me, that is true power.
