Stonewall Riots Analysis

In the summer of 1969 in New York a group of gay men, lesbian women and transgender individuals, most of whom were people of color, rose up against the police officers that were raiding the Stonewall Inn and unjustly arresting people. This started what later became known as the Stonewall Riots, which many people consider to be the very beginning of the gay rights movement in America. Years later, in 1980 in El Salvador, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador was assassinated while celebrating mass. He was killed by the right-wing militia because he often called the government's corrupt practices which promoted social inequality that benefited the oligarchy and promoted poor treatment for the working class. While the rest of the …show more content…
For this reason, the history of each of those factions is so important to me as it defines my personal history and legacy. While I do understand that I cannot go back to the past and change the painful parts of history, I know that by learning about the history of those groups I can learn about the different historical traumas caused to them by the oppressive establishment of the past as well as how each of those community partook in resistance againsts the different forms of oppression they had to face. It is not a secret that communities that have been historically subjugated by the social elites have faced, and continue to face, both microaggressions (which can range from the portrayal of harmful stereotypes in the media to public figures and celebrities making insensitive comments) that hinder the emotional wellbeing of those being affected as well as larger-scale macroaggressions. Events such as the Orlando massacre, the attacks perpetrated against immigrants and the rise of rape culture being prime examples of the horrendousness that those microaggressions can achieve. The people who have in the past been victim to those types of aggression were given one clear message, that they were not welcomed by society and that it did not matter how much they resisted the oppression the hatred directed towards them would forever haunt them; nevertheless they persisted. By learning the history of how each of the different communities I belong to have struggled in order to achieve equality I can better understand the historical foundations for the values of the current forms of activism these communities continues to engage in, which in turn would allow me to engage in political activism in an informed manner. Furthermore, by better understanding the history of people like me I can conceive more enlightened