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Chloe SanClemente Thompson

Dr. Clare Bright

Honors 394A

10 March 2016

Final Thoughts/Reflections

In class on Tuesday, you mentioned that public high schools don’t really expose students

to critical thinking in their classes; college is usually the first time that critical thinking is

required of American learners. I believe you describe exactly what I struggled with in my high

school education. As a freshman finishing my second quarter of university, I draw mostly on my

experiences in high school during discussions in class. These are, of course, very limited. I had

little curricular experience with African American movements, even less with feminism, and

absolutely none with Gay rights. I strove to be aware of current events so I had an understanding

extended beyond that of most of my peers in these areas; however small an advantage it was.

Prior to this quarter, I was aware of early African American movements (WEB DuBois

and Booker T. Washington) and the 20th century mainstream civil rights movements. I was

unshaken by that. As much as I internally objected to the lack of representation of other

minorities, LGBTQism, and feminism in the curriculum, I was unfazed by the

underrepresentation of African-American movements. I was purely unaware of how important

the things I didn’t know about Black movements were. As a result of this class, I feel as if for the

first time I’ve been exposed to these concepts without an anti-controversy filter. I can see what I

was missing and why it should bother me that we learn that the Black Panthers were just a

militant group looking to cause trouble without provocation.

LGBTQ history was blanked out from my school curriculum. Stonewall was something I

had only vaguely heard of and anything before Stonewall wasn’t “important” enough to be
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included in what we were taught. The age-old prosecution of gays was something that I was

completely unaware of; I had only very recent understandings of the movement. Only very

recently had the concept of inequality within the movement been introduced to me (and that

wasn’t in school, a friend brought it up). I had no concept of how Lesbians were overshadowed

by the dominant males of the movement, or how the B, T, and Qs were also underrepresented in

the mainstream movement. Heteronormativity was something that I had expressed in the context

of feminism, but had never verbalized clearly in those terms. Additionally, I didn’t understand

how closely connected heteronormativity was to the LGBTQ struggle (however, I was aware of

it at some level because they always felt closely related).

Feminism was, admittedly, the most interesting of the movements to me both at the

beginning and throughout the course. I was very vocally feminist in high school; I was the

resident liberal/democrat/socialist/communist in a fairly conservative pocket of Washington

State. I felt like I came up against so many walls trying to explain feminism to men and help

more women embrace the title. I knew how unpopular my opinion was and I often felt like a

radical. What I didn’t know was that I was nowhere near radical feminism. I was a staunch

liberal feminist, because I thought that was the furthest left on a feminist gradient. I thought,

based on how normal conservatism was in my surroundings, that I was already pushing the

boundaries of acceptance. This quarter, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that there are

schools of thought that align more with what I feel. It’s relieving to know that liberal feminism is

not the only way to be feminist.

Overall, this quarter has helped me understand two large concepts that all movements

interact with. The first is my articulation of privilege. Before, I had a very internalized way of

understanding privilege. It had been explained to me in a way I understood, but I always had

trouble articulating it because I had little evidence and examples to go on. Now, I feel as if I can
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articulate it and back it up on my own. This is invaluable to me, because I see the first step in

breaking down sexism, ableism, racism, homophobia, etc. is understanding one’s own privilege.

If ever I am having a constructive conversation about this (and I was forced to many a time in

high school) I start with privilege. Developing that point is essential to me. The second large

concept that all movements have in common is the radical edge. I had only ever been exposed to

liberal versions of each movement; they had been tailored so as not to create controversy and I

had been deprived of understanding other modes of thought. I now draw on multiple versions of

feminism and other movements in considering them.

When we went around the circle at the beginning of the quarter and gave a reason for

why we entered the class, I said that I had yelled a lot about these things in the past and that I

wanted to understand what I’d been yelling about. I do have a greater understanding of the

people and ideas behind each movement. I knew that I’d been yelling a lot without truly knowing

what to say, and I disliked this hypocrisy. This quarter developed that narrative for me and really

helped me pinpoint what I believe about each movement.