African American’s and women have gone on with little to no rights since the formation of the thirteen colonies. As time, has gone on, it has been said that everyone is equal but with the introduction of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, it is proven that there still is not full equality. Mary Hook’s “#SayHerName” is a reflection that focuses on the rights of African American Women and the problems they face being two of the minorities in America. This reflection focuses on two major problems, put into one, Racism that still exists today, and the lack of women right’s. These are two human rights problems that are over looked way too often in today’s society. This reflection is giving thanks to those women and girls who haven’t back down and stand up for their people daily. To those girls who don’t let men of any kind or anyone else walk over them because they know their worth even if they are not the majority that lives here. It encourages other black women and girls to not give up and to not stand down. To stand up to everyone who says they can’t, or won’t do something because they believe in themselves and know that they can. It encourages them to stand up for themselves because no one else will. 

 “#SayHerName” is not only about the rights of African Americans, or the rights of women, it’s about the rights of African American Women. African American women are never really put into their own category, they are either thought of as women, or African Americans. This article makes the audience think about them in a completely different way. If black people have less rights compared to white people, and women have less rights compared to men; where does this put black women? Not only do they face the bias of being a woman, they face that of being black also. Mary Hooks uses a unique way to put emphasis on the struggles black women face. Hooks uses the culture of black women to thank those who stand up for them, remember those who have lost their lives, and encourage everyone to keep going. The way that Hooks wrote this article makes it easier for the audience to understand and to relate, as to if she was to just tell them what is going on. It reads like she is writing to you. This makes more people aware of the situations that are going on that other people, people who are not affected by it, might not realize is going on. 

“The Journal of Southern History” is about the history of the south. The south is known for its slavery during the formation of the USA, its leaving of the country so it can have slavery, and its racism. This article talks about how far the south has, or has not come since the days of slavery. The south was some of the first places to have slaves. They depended on them for their agriculture and income. Not only did they use the slaves to make their crops and clean their house, they sold them for money too. Slaves in the south were very important for the souths economy. When slavery was being abolished in the United States and when president Abraham Lincoln, the south seceded from the nation, to have slavery. This is when the Civil War began. Slaves were also used during the civil war for many different things like fighting, getting supplies, etc. A lot of slaves went to fight for the North in order to gain their freedom from the slavery of the south. Even after slavery was abolished completely in the south, the south was still known for its dominate white population. They flew the rebel flag, some consider a sign of slavery and racism, on the capital building. It was not until last year that the flag was removed from the capital building. This article goes good with the “#SayHerName” article because it can show a little bit of history about how black people have gotten to where they are today, and all the struggles they have had to overcome. It’s easier to talk about a problem if you know the history of the problem so you know more about what you’re talking about. 

Throughout research of African American and women rights, it’s easy to see that the two different topics are very similar. Both took a while to be given, and are still not fully there. The civil rights movement of 1964 affected both African Americans and women. In The United States, prior to the Civil Rights Movement, women had no rights. They could not own land, vote, and had very limited job opportunities. All of these are true to African Americans too because at this time they were slaves. The goals of both groups of people were different, however. African Americans wanted their freedom, and women wanted to be equal to men. Both groups eventually reached these goals, but not entirely. To this day, African Americans and women are both looked at as less than to white males. As the Article “ The Origins and Legacy of the Civil Rights Act 1964” discusses the history of the Civil Rights Act, is also discusses how with the change of office came it also changed how people viewed the rights of African Americans and women. Meaning, if a liberal, someone who is all about women’s rights and the rights of African Americans, was in office then that’s how the nation was at that time. However, if a conservative was in office this would be different. This ties together with the recent election with Donald Trump being elected in to office. This ties together with this article because based off the article, if times were how they use to be, right now women and African Americans would have been looked as to have had less rights. This is one thing that has changed since then. Hooks states, “Presidential hopefuls would like to have us believe they have our backs. We know this isn’t true.” (#SayHerName, paragraph 4). This proves that even today the people running for office want the minorities, the black people, the women, to believe that they are fine and if they vote for them they will be fine, however this isn’t the case. Hooks continues to back her statement discussing how until they, being African American’s, build leadership in the republic states this will never change for anyone.  

 In the article “I’ve Got to Do Something for My People”, two teachers have a collection of their stories as black teachers in 1964. In this time, everything was segregated, bathrooms, restaurants, water fountains, schools, anything public was segregated. This was also when black people were supposed to be equal to white people but couldn’t even drink out of the same water fountain as them. Schools were segregated into white and black, and the white schools had white teachers, the black schools had black. You can see the differences in how just the schools are treated based off how much money each school were given. Black schools were given about twenty dollars, compared to white schools eighty dollars. That’s the money they used for books, and supplies. This is a simple example of how unequal things were. These black schools were called Freedom schools, made especially for black children. Clemons discusses the since of pride it gave her to go to this school and see the look on the children’s faces and for them to know that they did this just for them. That was probably one of the first times these children felt that feeling of being loved. These teachers knew how segregated the world was, and how much less these children got compared to white children, but they didn’t show it. They taught these kids the best they could and made them feel loved. That’s someone who stands up. They didn’t have to act like everything was fine. Clemons talks about the building they were in being an old church that was bombed and burned and how some nights the KKK would even show up. To put yourself in that environment for kids you may not know, is standing up. These are the women that Hooks is thanking, and appreciating. Even for something that looks so small, back then it was a big thing to do. 

An important factor to think about is that the Black Lives Matter movement does not focus solely on black lives. They focus on the minorities, on women, transgender people, and the LGBT community. so not only could you be a black woman, you could be a black lesbian women, imagine how little rights and how put down they are. Hooks briefly thanks these women for not standing back and letting anyone walk on them. When she does this, it shows that these are the strongest people out there. To have everything pointed against you and still not give up. A lot of times, in today’s society, it’s easy to forget the many different ways that a person can be different and with being different comes how they are treated by society. People get use to black people being treated one way, and women being treated one way. But now, we have this different group of people to think about. And with that can come a person who fits in all of these categories. Hooks does a great job in addressing this issue with the words she uses, and the how she communicated with her audience. “In these moments of gratitude, I take a deep breath and call the names of Black women and girls that have been killed by police, state violence, toxic masculinity, and who have been crushed under the weight of oppression.” (#SayHerName, Paragraph 2). This helps to show that people overlook all of the black women who have also been killed, or harmed in the wake of this movement. The media calls attention to all of the men that have been killed, but what about the women and girls?  “Toxic masculinity” is a phrase that stands out above all others. It shows that these women are still falling beneath the men in their lives. People too often but black people in what group, instead of black men and black women. Feminism still exists in the black community, black women are still looked at as inferior too black men. This itself is its own issue within our society. 

“Gender Rights, Transgender Rights, Women Rights?” is an article about gender rights and equality. It talks about transgender people and the human rights issue that often gets over looked because it’s very rare that these people are given their rights because not many people agree with the transgender community and think that if you are not born that gender, you are not that gender. A person’s sex is what they are biologically born with. Whether they were a boy or a girl at birth. A person’s gender is what they identify with, whether they identify with their sex or not. Transgender rights goes with women rights because, they are both about gender rights, and thy a e both minorities. It doesn’t matter if you were born a man or a woman, if you feel your identity belongs as one or the other, that is what you feel comfortable with and no one should be judged, ridiculed, or have their rights as a human being taken away because of that. This article ties together with Hook’s article because her article is about the rights of black women, and even talks about the black transgender women, and gay women. Whether you were born as a woman, or just identify as one, the article still is talking to you. Gender and race shouldn’t matter when it comes to rights, everyone should be equal. Mary Hooks is stating this in her article, she is standing up for all of the black women, transgenders, gay people, all of these categories fall under gender rights or the lack of. 

All of these articles tie back with Mary Hooks article “#SayHerName” because all of them have something to do with the rights of African Americans, or the rights of women, or both.  Even now, after all the years of fighting for simple rights and laws being passed, there is still a lack of equality. It’s easy to see in today’s society with the help of social media the difference in how these groups are treated, how all minorities are treated. By now, you would think it would be different considering how far we, as humans have come, and how populated the country has become, that now there are many different races, and cultures that populate the United States. After time, people would get use to the differences and adapt to them. People don’t like change. They want it to be the same way it always has been. We as humans are afraid of change. This is why, even after 1964, African Americans and women are two groups that have been in America since the beginning, are two groups with the least equality. 

Women and African Americans have come a long way since the formation of America, and even before then. As a matter of fact, we are one of the only countries where we have the most freedom and rights. This in its self says a lot about our country compared to others. Even though we have come so far, we still have a long way to go. We have the rights we want now, but we do not have equality. This is something our nation as a whole needs to work for together. We need to cut out the violence and work as a country to cut out minorities all together. To be equal and to have equality is for everyone to be and feel the same, even if they are the only person from their country or race in an area. To not feel like an outcast or unwanted or to be afraid to go somewhere because it is a predominately white area or black area. We no longer have segregated public areas, but in a way we still do. To have an area be all black or all white is segregation. But instead of it being government segregated, we segregate ourselves. We tend to befriend those who are similar to us, who look like and talk like us. We, as a country, make ourselves segregated and un-equal. This isn’t a complete government problem. It’s also the citizens’ problems. We as citizens should strive to mix ourselves in a community with people of different races, cultures, religions, and ethics because we are privileged to live in a country that allows us to all have different things, and believe in different things and to be able to practice these and speak these is a privilege. We should take the opportunity to get to know these different people with different back grounds, cultures, and religions so we can learn more and grow more as human beings.  

Mary Hooks reflection “#SayHerName” was written for the black lives matter movement. This movement is not only for black lives as you can tell by her reflection. The movement is for all minorities, women, transgenders, gay people. A lot of people say “well if it’s not only black lives then why isn’t it called all lives matter?” to answer that question; the black lives matte movement started in 2013, with the killing of Travon martin by a white police officer. Since then there has been many more cases of white police officers shooting and killing black males for no apparent reason. This started the black lives matter movement. However, these activists go to many other rallies for things like women rights, transgender rights, gay rights movements. They support all minorities. This misconception is why so many people have a problem with the black lives matter movement. They don’t know what it’s really about or why or how it started. Yes, all lives do matter, which is this movement started. To have someone to stand up for the minorities. If no one else is going to stand up for them, then what is better than them all coming together to stick up for each other? 

The rights of women and African Americans go hand in hand. Both are things that were worked for throughout the history of the United States, both were trying to be achieved at the same time, and both are said to be fully equal, but there are doubts for both. This is why The Black Lives Matter movement isn’t just for the black lives, they fight for women too. They know that in this world white males are dominate to everyone. It’s almost like a chain; all men are superior to all women, all white people are superior to all black people, but all white men are superior to everyone else. The Black Lives Matter movement is to help fight for full equality, the full equality that has been fought for, for years. First it was fighting for freedom, and the right to vote. Then it was no segregation and the ability to work. Each time something is accomplished, its either not fully accomplished, or is followed by something else these two groups don’t have. It’s time for America to be the fully equal, wages, rights, jobs, everything. The world is changing around us, so should we. 

After reading a lot of different material this year, they all tie back to similar issues to me. The rights of African American, women, and other minorities. These readings made these issues stand out to me and prove that these are still problems that we deal with in every day life. These are real problems that people wrote from experience. “#SayHerName” made these issues stand out to me and even more real than just reading about it in an article. Equality is something that everyone should get to have and experience. Everyone should have their rights and be able to have their freedom no matter their gender or race. Human rights issues still exist in modern day America. Not everyone notices these issues because the issues don’t affect them because they are not part of the minorities. These people should wake up and realize the problems people next door to them face. 
