Final Product Link: https://sites.google.com/stu.naperville203.org/owen-voices-project/home
After completing my voices project, the two most important things I learned from my research were the idea of intersectionality and the realization of how underrepresented women of color have been throughout my education. The idea of intersectionality felt so important to me because it made me realize how I had been blind to a problem that affects a lot of people in my life. In not recognizing this problem earlier, I had been part of the problem, holding society back from addressing the problems that arise when sexism and racism compound each other. The realization that women of color had been so underrepresented in my learning was important to me because it shocked me. Before this year, I can’t say with confidence that I had ever been assigned a text by a woman of color over 14 years of public schooling. This shocked me and made me question what other perspectives I have been blind to.
I hope that after viewing my project, you become aware of the unique position that women of color find themselves in because of their combined race and gender. I also hope that you understand that my text set is by no means final. In order to better understand the voice of any group, you must keep seeking out their stories and learning their perspectives.
During my time at NNHS, I’ve learned a lot and grown immensely as a person. As corny as it sounds, I learned to believe in myself and to not make decisions based on the opinions of others. Going into high school, everyone that I talked to warned against taking too many hard classes or trying to juggle lots of activities. Thinking back, that was horrible advice. Over the last few years, I’ve shaken that out of my head and started doing the things that I found interesting and exciting, regardless of what other people thought. I also learned how helpful the NNHS community is. The last four years have not been without their share of challenges, but at every obstacle there have been people who have been by my side and had my back and I am extremely grateful for that. Finally, I learned that the world around you is what you make of it. Going into high school as a little freshman, I think I mostly viewed the world around me and all the unknowns and uncertainties that exist as something scary. Since then, I’ve grown to have the attitude that it’s important to look at life as an adventure. While the world is big and scary, exploring these unknowns with the people you care about is what life is all about and where I’ve made my favorite memories.
The best advice I could give to future NNHS Seniors is to live this last year without regrets because it goes by faster than you could imagine, covid or no covid. While I’ve made peace with missing out on everything that was cancelled this year, it still makes me kinda sad that I never got to have a last homecoming, a real prom, or even a real last day of school. I hope that after the weird last year and a half that we’ve had, next year’s seniors take full advantage of everything (hopefully) going back to normal.
Hi Owen,
Through reading all these projects and texts today, I noticed that you and Jake were really on the same page. Have you guys talked at all about your thoughts and findings? I think you could really learn a lot from each other having researched a very similar question with the same focus question. As I told Jake, it was nice to view a Voices Project with a more specific voice highlighted than mine (given that I was researching women as a whole while you looked more specifically at black women). I really liked Brittany Terry’s essay, which you included in your text set, because it honed in on an issue that I researched a lot in my project, matriarchal stereotypes. In the modern world, this dependence on men which is suggested by the stereotypes placed on women in the media really does not exist, and by continuing to misrepresent women in this way we perpetuate their oppression and counteract the progress they’ve made.
Hi Owen, I really like your topic because it is so relevant today in so many ways. I especially liked how you admitted that not noticing the problem makes someone a part of the problem, which can be very eye opening to people who feel as if it is not their business or do not care. I am super impressed by your sources and I especially liked your inclusion of artwork that represented the discrimination women of color experience. The piece was really powerful and I did not see artwork included on many other projects, so I think it was a really effective and creative addition. Your essay was also really supportive of your claims because it compares your issue to things that the majority of your audience is familiar with, such as Black Panther by Marvel. All in all, this was such a creative and persuasive project and I really enjoyed reading it! Thanks so much for sharing!
Owen, I think your research topic is super important. Women, especially women of color, have been marginalized throughout history, and it continues to trickle down into today. I agree that not enough diverse perspectives are being assigned to students. Honestly, the first book I probably ever read by a black author was Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, my freshman year. We all need to start making an effort to employ listening to diverse voices in our everyday lives. I agree that high school was actually where we all found ourselves, even though that sounds like a line from the most basic coming of age drama ever. Good luck to you at college!
Odawg,
I think the voice that you focused on throughout your project is really important. I too have only been given one book written by a woman of color; Beloved. I strongly agree that our education has a lot of voices of minority, color and varying gender missing from our syllabus. And as one of the best high education high schools in the state; This is a significant loss that need to be promptly addressed for future generations, this generation. Likewise, I really enjoyed the variety and diversity in text sets that you used; you moreover, connected all texts back to your inspiration and research question very well and overall this was a captivating and informative presentation. This will not be forgotten in my mind as the artwork, Essay and info-graphic all really stayed with me. Great presentation.
Hi Owen!! Your website was super interesting, and I agree that intersectionality is a commonly-overlooked aspect of issues of prejudice. It can be very easy to overlook the unique discrimination faced by people who belong to multiple minorities, and so it is especially important to uplift the voices of these individuals. The topics discussed in the academic paper you included were especially disappointing, namely the part that mentioned that female African American authors needed to receive a foreword from a white author in order for their work to receive true praise. Not only do these women receive insane amounts of judgement just generally, they are also silenced and beaten down when they try to speak up about these experiences.