Prompt: How has the work you have done in this course promoted reflection on individual strengths, identity, and power, and how this has contributed to your understanding of leadership or your capacity to lead?
The Leadership Prologue course “Sit-ins, Kiss-ins, and Die-ins: Feminist and LGBTQ+ Activism in the Contemporary U.S.” has taught me so much about feminist and queer activism. As I worked on quizzes and participated in discussions, the materials that I found myself lost in caused me to think about my individual strengths and weaknesses, as well as my identity and power.
Earlier in the semester, I took the StrengthFinders assessment in order to gain a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. According to the results, my top five strengths were that I was an Achiever, I was Deliberative, I had Discipline, I possessed Intellection, and I could provide Input. I noticed these strengths in me as I participated in discussion posts and class discussions. For example, I demonstrated Intellection during the unit on Tarana Burke and the MeToo Movement — this unit caused me to think more about how the media attempts to portray MeToo and other feminist movements as “gender wars” when in actuality, they want to provide safe spaces for victims of sexual violence. Working with a group to complete the final project and all of its components — the annotated bibliography, the action plan, and the final oral presentation — allowed me to demonstrate that I was an Achiever that possessed the ability to work smarter and harder as I set goals for myself and worked long hours to complete tasks before the deadline. While I did not take on the role of the leader, I was able to provide my own input as I put forth the idea of bringing in transgender activists, organizations, and individuals as no one in our group was transgender themselves and we wanted to uplift trans voices without speaking over them.
I identify as a bisexual nonbinary woman. Additionally, as a black person, I make sure to recognize my blackness every day, so it came as a surprise to me that a lot of the individuals and organizations discussed in the course were black queer individuals and queer individuals of color. The unit on black feminism and the Combahee River Collective allowed me to think about how black women have to fight several battles. Additionally, I took in a lot of information after completing Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers. I did a lot of self-reflection as she described how she could not support feminism that supported homophobia and anti-Black racism (Carruthers 9) and how Black people in the LGBTQ+ community played a part in the civil rights movement (Carruthers 71) — I had craved to see all of these things in my life and I had finally found a book that had said exactly what I was thinking.
Prior to taking this Leadership class and learning all the material, my understanding of America was this: the country was built by and for white, cisgender, heterosexual men. After engaging in several lessons in which leaders of movements were black women and individuals in the LGBTQ+ community, I see that people like me are capable of building and leading in the country. My identity made me feel like I was powerless and that I couldn’t make change. After creating an action plan that would turn grief into action, prevent violence against transgender individuals by educating cisgender people, and provide transgender individuals in college with safe spaces and resources all at the same time, I have come to the realization that I can make a difference.
