How does one determine who is a person rather than a biological entity of a human being? The checklist doesn’t consist of blue eyes, brown eyes, medium length hair, etc. although it does judge based on appearance. So how then is personhood earned?

It can be based on one’s intelligence, so if you get every A and push yourself past all limits to achieve the long term benefits it does not guarantee, you are showing your person ablitilies. It can tie into labor and how to be a functioning member of society. Be polite, but not too nice or talkative. Go to college to get a good job. I was somewhat under the impression that because I am a human being I have human rights which is true to an extent, but the lesser known, harder to achieve, subconscious rights are my person rights. 

Let’s say we’re all at the same starting line, we did the same stretches, have similar good quality running shoes, practiced (some harder than others), and yet when the announcer says “Go!” I have to let others get a 30 second head start. He says go and the straight white males take off with the confidence only a straight white male could have. A couple seconds later black men get going, white women follow suit, the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and people with disabilities are finally able to start sprinting to catch up. This is a very general list and the roadblocks people face to reaching that finish line could continue.

Women have gained a lot of mobility in reference to the spaces we are now ‘allowed’ to enter. Does it mean we are welcomed with open arms to enter these spaces? No, but hey it’s in our rights and is now seen with more normalcy then it was dating back to the 1950’s where mobility was nothing but the house, store, and possibly the bank. Looking back more closely into the 1950’s it represents the birth of the American Dream where women’s imagination came to die. Suburnian life came into full swing with white picket fences, one working father, at least 2 children, and a housekeeper, I mean wife, was all one lifestyle. The American Dream is called that for a reason, because at the end of the day it is unattainable and very few are able to reach the common understanding of what the Dream is. The outsiders are always looking into something that seems so close and is plastered everywhere as a goal and something to be achieved when in actuality it is to keep the working class working. Karl Marx speaks on this and views people as extremely creative but we throw ourselves into a hole of neverending labor. He states, “Humanity creates itself as the product of its own labor, ultimately objectifying itself through the work it performs.” Marx believes with the rise of capitalism that all we are is machines with no other purpose in life. I believe Marx is close to understanding what keeps workers working but misses the mark in terms of why people continue to work. For most there is no choice but to continue down the same deadpan path as certain groups receive less opportunities to advance in society than others. This can be as a person of color, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, or as a woman. Going back to women, taking up space as a woman was an unheard of term and women were quite literally told to take up as little space as possible and be seen not heard. For black women, it was not to exist at all and not be seen nor heard. Women like Claudette Colvin, who refused to move to the back of the bus before Rosa Parks did or Serena Williams who was talked about in the excerpt from Citizen as someone who would take up space in a predominately white sport helped pave the way for women’s mobility. Taking up space should be the goal to normalize women being able to do anything they want in any space they want. Women are more than capable of it and I know it will continue as women cautiously step into uncharted territory of being free to be anything or do anything they desire. 

Claudette Colvin