Woman Noir: Black Women in Media

When coming up with an idea for my activist project I thought about what kinds of ideas and issues I am passionate about. Since we are in the age of technology I knew that I wanted to do a social media based project. I decided to focus on the image(s) of black women presented in popular media.

Margaret Brent and the Women of Early Baltimore

It seems as if people constantly forget about the contributions woman have had in the development of this country. Especially in politics or the wellbeing of the masses, there is always a debate on whether or not a woman is qualified for higher positions. But there was a time when women had a big impact on our political, economic, and social system.

During early America in Baltimore, it was normal for women to participate in the economic and civil matter as lawyers, witnesses, and court-appointed appraisers. Husbands would even appoint their wives to act as their attorney and majority of witnesses for wills were women. Women were actually preferred over men to be the witness on wills and would not challenge the woman’s words as they would men. Women also held roles in the ministry and also as religious educators, oOn top of their role as lawyers, ministers, and educator, the majority of the women were farmers wives and would work long hours in the fields with their husbands under bad and unsafe conditions that lowered the life expectancy of the settlers.

Without Margaret Brent, there might not be a Maryland today. Margaret Brent was born around 1601 to a wealthy family in Gloucestershire, England. She was a smart and well-educated woman while many of the women were getting married she chose to remain unmarried to maintain her social standing and all her property which she would lose if she was to get married. Margaret Brent later became Governor Leonard Calvert’s executrix of his estate. And handled the affairs of Lord Baltimore and Governor Leonard Calvert.In 1645 St.Mary’s(MD) was invaded by Richard Ingle, he destroyed the property of Catholic settlers, and took the Jesuit priests and Margaret’s brother Giles back to England in chains. Governor Leonard Calvert and other settlers fled to Virginia, and the population of the colony dropped drastically. From 500-600 people to under 100. Late in 1646, the Governor returned with his personally financed soldiers to reestablish Calvert control. But died in 1647 leaving the soldiers waiting for payment and heavily in debt, so Margret sold Governor Leonard Calvert estate to help pay the soldiers but was not enough so she also Lord Baltimore’s cattle without his knowledge because there was not the time to ask him for one seeing as he was in England. And also had to fight to prevent the Calverts from losing territory to Virginia. Without the strength and determination of Margaret Brent, there is no certainty that Maryland would have still existed.

There is no doubt that women are capable of succeeding in these positions but women’s strengths are usually highlighted when they are needed the most but when they are not that’s when the comments like “women are too emotional”, “this career is too dirty of a woman” beings.

 

Women In Politics

I did my activism project based on an election that was taking place at UMBC. I was inspired because of the recent 2016 election and how women are represented in politics. In America women make up majority of the country’s population, they earn almost 60 percent of undergraduate degrees, and 60 percent of all master’s degrees, they earn 47 percent of all law degrees, and 48 percent of all medical degrees, they earn more than 44 percent of master’s degrees in business and management, including 37 percent of MBAs, and they are 47 percent of the U.S. labor force, and 59 percent of the college-educated, entry-level workforce. But yet Women today hold only 18.5 percent of congressional seats, and they are just 20 percent of U.S. senators, they hold only 24.2 percent of state legislature seats, they are only 10 percent of governors, only 

ISAAC MYERS

Born in Baltimore(1835), Maryland, the son of free African-American parents. Myers was barred from public education, but he did attend a private day school run by a local clergyman named Rev. John Fortie. Leaving school at sixteen, he served an apprenticeship with Thomas Jackson, a widely-respected African-American ship caulker and then entered the trade himself, becoming by the age of 20 a supervisor, responsible for caulking some of Baltimore’s largest clipper ships. He stayed in the trade for a decade. 

FRESHMAN 15: UMBC EATS HEALTHY

As a UMBC student, I’m sure you’ve expressed frustration amongst your friends and about not having enough options to eat on campus. If it is not a lack of options, it is the lack of healthy options. I don’t know about you but an activist has got to eat!

My project inspiration is UMBC and healthy food. UMBC is a culturally diverse campus which means there are a litany of languages, dresses and delicacies that converge here. My project’s main aim is to motivate my peers to eat healthier!   My original idea was to tackle weightloss on campus but that proved difficult and turned political.  

Blaming the Wrong People for Censorship

For my Activist Project I wanted to look into more in the recent on line movements about fans of niche games wanting to end what they consider censorship and how they are going about in the wrong way. I chose this topic because I am a part of the community of fans of these niche games and I constantly see how they are going about the problem in the wrong way and blaming the wrong people for what is going on.

Hymy Cohen: Equality Activist Through Sports

 

Hymy interviewing Joe Louis, Heavyweight Champion in the 1940’s

Hymy interviewing Joe Louis, Heavyweight Champion in the 1940’s

Hymy interviewing Joe Louis, Heavyweight Champion in the 1940’s

Hymy Cohen was a longtime sports editor of The Evening Capital, a coach of recreational sports, and the founder of the Annapolis City Recreation Department in 1950. This department was the first integrated sports league in Annapolis.

We decided to do our activist history project on Hyman (Hymy) Cohen due to the influential nature of his life achievements. Since we ourselves were inspired by his accomplishments, we wanted to educate others in hope that more will become inspired. As our primary source, we interviewed Hymy’s son, Joe Cohen, who is Jessica’s father. Joe was an informational source because he grew up with Hymy’s influential presence in the Annapolis community. In addition, Joe was able to show us some personal artifacts, including pictures of Hymy in action, the trophies from some of Hymy’s awards, and clippings of articles both those written by Hymy and about Hymy. Some of these artifacts can be seen in the pictures below.

Quote from Joe Cohen:

“When I was young, Grandpa would take me to high school football and basketball games at the negro high school, Bates High School.  To me, it wasn’t different from the other schools he took me to.  They all played the same game.  He used his position at “The Evening Capital“, now known as The Capital to publicize the athletic accomplishments of all, regardless of race or religion.”
From the large amount of involvement that Hymy had in Annapolis, you could classify him as an inclusive and active member of the community. His work took major strides towards the acceptance of integration and equality by utilizing his influential status in his publicly viewed position as a sports writer. Everyone can use Hymy as a motivational example on getting involved by utilizing what you have in your skillset. 

Baltimore History: The April Uprising

I felt that the uprisings last April were an important incident that happened in Baltimore’s history. It was international news and there were many different ways to hear about it. There were talks on campus with various speakers, the media was reporting on it, and everyone was talking about it. I felt as though there were many different stories being said about what happened and about that area in general.

Kosher Food on UMBC Campus Activist Project

Being an orthodox Jew, I only eat kosher food. Finding kosher food on campus is very challenging as there is not that much of it available. Kosher food is only sold in one part of the commons on one or two shelves on a single refrigerator. The selection consists of only one type of boxed salad, tuna sandwiches and deli sandwiches.

Feminist Activism Video

This video is soon to be released. I am currently waiting on one more applicant waiver. The video was cast in Miami beach and displays what it means to be a woman or a marginalized group. This videos purpose was to explore how mainstream society views women and minorities. I simply ask a series of questions to different candidates, and allow the viewer to create his own views about how society treats women. It also highlights how women feel. The video was taken by the beach because I wanted to understand why people behave differently in a beach setting, and what makes it more acceptable to behave differently. The video does a lot to highlight where our society needs to head in the future in order to fight for womens’ rights. I try to speak as little as possible because I want to allow people to feel free to express themselves and express society. Overall I think this video will do great good in creating activism and pushing young people to fight for all marginalized groups.