Hi everyone and welcome back to my blog.
This week I wanted to talk about activism and the evidence of the oppression of women and the oppression of nature in communities.
First, to better understand the reading I wanted to give the definition of activism: the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change. (from google)
Next, I would like to mention an article I read by Sam Levin called At Standing Rock, women lead fight in face of Mace, arrests and strip searches, where he talks about “Native women say they are protecting the basic human right to clean water. But for some indigenous activists, the internationally recognized movement has become a larger fight against a history of misogyny, racism, and abuse by law enforcement.” So basically, the native women in the area are fighting for their basic right to clean water and for their indigenous land, and police are fighting back and punishing them for it. The police are dehumanizing the indigenous women and treating them like criminals. The author also talks about how “Several women who were arrested said they were crowded into vans and cells. Behind bars, they encountered mostly native women, many who were incarcerated for what appeared to be low-level offenses.” So native women were being thrown in jail for fighting for their land and clean water. Once thrown in jail, they were treated very poorly and was described as, “the jail was packed with native women incarcerated for reasons other than the pipeline actions, including one who was pregnant and feared she was having a miscarriage and another who appeared to be severely ill.” This last quote is very important because it shows just how oppressed these women were and how they were being treated so poorly. They were being denied basic human rights to healthcare because they were fighting to protect their land.
To answer the question of, do you agree that behind the material deprivations and cultural losses of the marginalized and the poor lie the deeper issues of disempowerment and/or environmental degradation? I would say yes and this is because I believe that lower class and poor people seem to be more oppressed than middle-class individuals, and have a harder time keeping afloat. Women in Haiti have a harder time collecting basic human needs such as clean water and food, whereas women in the US just have a harder time getting into a position of power in the government.
Another reading I wanted to talk about is by Wangari Maathai, called Speak Truth to Power. It talks about how “Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s foremost environmentalist, and women’s rights advocate, founded the Green Belt Movement on Earth Day, 1977, encouraging the farmers (70 percent of whom are women) to plant “Green Belts” to stop soil erosion, provide shade, and create a source of lumber and firewood. She distributed seedlings to rural women and set up an incentive system for each seedling that survived. To date, the movement has planted over fifteen million trees, produced income for eighty thousand people in Kenya alone, and has expanded its efforts to over thirty African countries, the United States, and Haiti.” This Green Belt Movement was created by a woman and has impacted many other women all around Haiti, as well as impacted their environment in a positive way. Women play a huge role in contributing to activism for our environment, and I think it will be women who ultimately come up with a way to heal our planet and make us self sustainable.
Hi Deanna, I love the points you made about the Levin and Maathai articles. These women made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the future generation, land, and country as a whole. They were willing to come together for a common purpose and sacrifice beyond what is expected of them. Despite whether or not happiness is increased and pain is decreased of this one man matters very little. What it really comes down to is, is the world a better and overall less painful place because of it, and if this is true then this follows the guild of ultimate utilitarianism. And a phrase that Utilitarianist take very seriously is “to love your neighbor as yourself” (440). You value no one in life more than you value yourself, and if we were to treat our “neighbor” or all people as we treat ourselves then the world would be much better off. And as a whole, the general happiness and lack of pain would increase drastically, and peace would come to all people of Earth and suffering would eventually end. A drawback to the greatest happiness principle is us humans can not tell the future. Like stopping a fire from happening. Even though the immediate cause may be a good one, prevent someone from having their house burned down and life put into shambles it can still have negative consequences. Since we can not look into the future we do not know the ramifications of the house burning down. Maybe this house burning down causes people to look into fire codes and building codes, and reevaluate them to prevent future fires and misfortunes. But let us say this house does not burn down and these codes are such are not looked at again until a different building catches on fire. This new building is set closer to more trees that catch fire and fall down which causes more fire, and now the whole neighborhoods on fire. And instead of one family is in shambles and potentially financial crisis now the whole neighborhood is, and the city, in general, is going to have to pay out even more for the damage done. But all this could have been avoided if the original house burnt down and people had the opportunity to see how they could make houses safer for next time. But since we can not tell the future, we must assume that our immediate action will be the right one, but overall we do not know. We are only guessing when in reality some bad happening now could prevent someone much worse happening later. Despite the sorrows, and unfair action brought against them if the events never transpired many people could still be disproportionally impacted and at risk. Even though what they went through is absolutely brutal and unnecessary their sacrifice has ripples of benefits extending far past what they may have anticipated. So far that what they did even benefits us here in America, learning of their action to help teach ourselves to be better people, learn perspective, and help get involved to make a difference.
Hey Deanna, I really enjoyed reading your post. The fact that in this day and age that Native Americans are still suffering at the hands of white men is utterly disgusting to me. We often hear how racism is over in America and how these kinds of things don’t happen anymore in our current year, but sadly those statements are a fantasy. The segment where the woman described how the police officers strip searched her forcefully was awful to sit through. It is so dehumanizing to imagine such a thing happening to a person who didn’t do anything wrong. What was her crime? Is it wrong to want a place to call you home and want it untouched and unsoiled by strangers? These women were standing up for their land, their home, and they were spit in the face by these people that are supposed to serve and protect. I don’t know… again, it’s hard to think about how these things are still happening in our country. The media always wants to paint a pretty picture and snuff out the voices of those who are truly suffering and experiencing all of this mistreatment and abuse. I think it was great to end your blog post on a brighter note considering how difficult some of the articles were to sit through. The reality is that it is primarily women who are taking the time to care for and protect the environment, and in many situations these women are people of color who are usually willing to put everything on the line for their cause of protecting and nourishing the planet we call home.