As my average steps a day pick up, the pace of life has seemed to correlate as well. This first week has felt like a month’s worth of experiences bunched up into 7 days… Centering on women in politics as the main theme for the first week has prompted me to digest how my dual role as a woman and minority plays into the political environment I am imposed in.
During my first NY museum adventure of the summer I visited the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. During my visit I was drawn into the “Deconstructing Power” exhibit by W.E.B. Du Bois, an American sociologist, during the 1900’s World’s Fair. Through his colorfully disturbing diagrams, Du Bois forces the viewer to question if design is an accurate indicator of a country’s progress or a perpetuation of bias. As I was walking through the exhibit I was reminded of how America’s obsession with showcasing progress to other countries was tied into the disproportionate migration of minority groups who built the frameworks of America. Which forces me to question if a country could truly be “progressing” if progress comes at the cost of perpetuating oppression.
This inquiry into how society’s perspective of progress in some ways pushes systemic racism continued on through the week as I watched Razing Liberty Square as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Razing Liberty Square detailed the displacement of Miami’s Liberty Square residents as the effects of climate change causes sea levels to rise, skyrocketing the value of Liberty Square’s height above sea level. Home to one of America’s first major public housing developments, Liberty Square is undergoing climate gentrification. The Liberty Square initiative that sought to address “crime and poverty” has more so addressed a way to make rent unachievable by residents. And as more “development” is placed onto Liberty Square, residents are fleeting quicker than architecture is being put down due to the destruction of community space and affordability.
The film and exhibit together call into frame a larger question for myself about how oppressed populations can start to overcome the challenges placed onto them. Pearl Dowe, a political science professor at Emory, details how Black women were able to build autonomy in their societal roles by developing an encouraging culture. This struck me because in most conversations of encouraging equity, I have not heard of building up minority communities as a means to boost social capital. Dowe explains how Black women were excluded from political participation, and as a result have developed strong communities engaged in socioeconomic and political conditions. This beneficial resistance can be summed up into radical imagination: a way to transform visions of social progression into social action.
The idea of radical imagination fits nicely into my introduction in working with Lower Eastside Girls Club (LEGC) because this is one of their core values. Radical imagination can show up in a multitude of beneficial resistance forms like networking, political mobilization, and office seeking. So far at LEGC the two projects I have been working on focus on cultivating empowerment through ambition/ supporting mental health in girls through community building and familiarizing young girls on the ways to become politically active in their local governments. As I experience radical imagination through local museums, films, and my collaborations with LEGC I am starting to see the strength in socialization of communities. Our communities, especially communities for women and minority groups, enable us to not only take steps forward in terms of building a strong sense of self but also take steps together in terms of civic engagement.
