Aligning Histories as an Act of Resistance

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In the Beginning of the week, Noemi, Margot, Andreas and I discussed “The Struggle for the People’s King,” and the authors focus on moral authority and how groups (especially political groups), use certain icons to spread their message, but also in some cases, to put down other groups. We sat discussing the absurdity of the family values movement, in their false claims and statements. On Friday, our class got to go to the archives and look more specifically at person files. There were three files in front of us, Margot opened one about Stanley L. Jackson, and I had one about Allen Ballard. At the end of our files, we both had portraits that were clearly taken for some yearbook at the time. We looked back at our previously saved documents, and found that we were able to cross-reference these two men from a document in the MOCs’ chronological timeline of black history at kenyon. This document explained that these two men were the first black men to attend Kenyon. 

In Chapter three of “The Struggle for the People’s King,” both pro-LGBTQ groups and anti-LGBTQ groups were heavily opposing each other, their message began to sit in their opposition rather than in their existence. It became a fight that pro-LGBTQ groups did not sign up for, a fight forcing them to prove their identities validity. Both groups were using Martin Luther King as a voice of moral authority, using his assumed values to accept or reject another group. The family values movement began to "(falsely) quote civil rights activist Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth"(Yazdiha 83) and reworked Dr. Kings values to "'create a King in their own image"'(Yazdiha 87) and undermine Coretta Scott-King's statement that MLK accepts and stands with the LGBTQ movement. These anti-LGBTQ movements worked to falsify histories in order to gain appeal from other groups. 

Upon finding Allen Ballards and Stanley Jackson person file and matching it to MOCs documentation of black history at Kenyon, I understood a sort of parallel between our assigned  readings and these findings. It is important for minority groups to work together to legitimize each others history and cause for equality, because there will unfortunately be groups like the Miami-Dade campaigns, family values, and groups attempting like North Carolina General Assembly to push Amendment one. Hajar Yazdiha presents history as a precarious thing, in that groups work to falsify other narratives. "the strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks--two key Democratic constituencies"(Yazdiha 87). But some groups, like the Kenyons Men of Color use history as a tool for change, compassion, and connection. When groups prevent this growth, history becomes untrustworthy, because narratives are often treated as true when it aligns with another, just like our own connection between Stanley and Ballards individual histories coinciding with a group's history. We have yet to look into collaboration between groups of identity and inclusion, but this blog post has made me curious as to what that looks like/ has looked like on campus.


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