Weekly Activism Log #2

This week I helped work on the partner movie night with HASA. I worked on making the flyer and doing some other organizational things with that. I have been working on screening movies for the movie night on Wednesday. It is interesting because it shows how much we all must work together, even in the simple things. For instance, Heather originally gave movie options, but unfortunately their were some regulation difficulties. Then Schuyler had to find the possible movies we could show for the movie night. He then gave them to Heather who gave them to me to screen. So it takes a lot of people to do something small.

The activism that stands out to me most this week was simply going to Take Back the Night. It truly was a wonderful experience. I wasn’t really feeling well and I was hoping to leave early, but the feeling of being around other people who believe in equality for women and want to fight against these different issues oppressing women is almost unexplainable. It was peaceful and passionate. While this isn’t directly related to service learning it definitely relates to our class. It made me think about the difficulties we have encountered in our class with working together and organizing all of that. We discuss in class the problems of speaking for other people. We also discuss the problems that can arise when attempting to work with women rather than for them. Take Back the Night gave me hope. Here we were, people with all kinds of differences, working together to stand up for something and fighting for it. It was just refreshing to know that it is possible to come together despite differences we may have.  It made me think about our readings this past week from our Feminist Genealogies book. The book’s examples about the activist Indian women was very inspiring. The book shows that they did not always succeed and faced many risks and poor outcomes (Alexander, and Mohanty 118-119). The strength and courage they show is truly inspiring and if they can do it we surely can!

All that I have been doing has been helping me to learn more about working with others. It is a difficult thing to do, but it is possible. I am also learning more about the issue affecting migrant farm workers as I go on and that is definitely something worthwhile.

Works Cited:

Alexander, Jacqui M., and Chandra Mohanty. Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. New York, NY: Routledge, 1997. 118-119. Print.

Weekly Activism Log #1

This week has been interesting and thought provoking. I started working on some boxes in order to collect cans and other non perishable food items for the migrant workers. I am hoping to use my resident assistant job to my benefit and put them around the living communities. However, I still need to get permission to put them in the halls and offices so I am waiting on that. This week I also went and volunteered in the UCF community garden at the Arboretum.

Working in the Arboretum really made me think about these migrant workers. I was in the sun, sweating, and working hard. It was definitely not my idea of a “fun” time. In one sense I felt connected to these migrant workers because I could feel an ounce of their struggle, but at the same time I felt even more disconnected from them because comparing what I was doing to what they do is almost absurd. I was working in the garden for like two hours. These workers work all day long… and then have to go back the next day. Another thing is that UCF’s Arboretum is an organic garden. So I did not have to worry about pesticides or anything of that sort. I knew that I would be able to leave and go to my air conditioned room and take a shower and eat a tasty lunch, and this is not a luxury those workers experience. It makes me feel slightly like Trinh Minh-ha’s “anthropologist” who can never completely understand (68).

This experience definitely made me able to empathize for these migrant workers and feel more empathy towards their situation. It is one thing to read about something, but to experience it is completely different. I didn’t even experience the situation, but it has still affected my mindset. I am very excited for the Garden day when we travel to work side by side with the women!

Works Cited:

Minh-ha, Trinh. Woman, Native, Other. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989. Print.