The Power of Lemonade

Lemonade made me feel ignorant. It made me feel ignorant because I have never seen this before. I understand women in America, especially women of minorities, have a much harder time in the United States then men, but I've never seen it up close and personally. I've heard stories of women rising to power and through this current election it showed me how much people, people I mean men, are scared of a strong independent women. I feel ignorant because up until these past couple weeks, watching the film Lemonade and keeping up with our presidential election, I realized what women go through. I realized how hard it is to be a women in America, just like it is very hard to be a black, Hispanic, or Asian. I never saw what it was like for women, and now my eyes are open.

In the household I am growing up in my mother raised me with a strong iron fist. She was the ruler, and her children were her subjects. She wasn't so strict that she was doing too much, but watching her be as strong as she is just in everyday life made it seem normal to me. Especially because I live in Oak Park as well, a very equal and accepting community, I thought every women was like this. That they were strong, independent, and worked just as hard as any man would. With my father having a great amount of respect for her I thought every man respected women and thought of them as equal. She raised me not knowingly that she was blinding me because I never realized the hardships women go through. I had to sit down and talk with her about it because this is not the case. Men still treat women like they are second class to them, I just never realized it.

She makes it look so easy. She is a natural born leader. When I was younger I was confused. I always thought why does mommy have final say with our family? Watching television and being the general norm I was programmed to think that fathers ran the house, went to work, and paid the bills, while mommy stays at home and takes care of the children, cooks, and cleans. In the household I live in this is not the case. My mom has worked just as hard as my dad has, my dad just makes more money. Some nights my mother cooks and cleans, other nights my father. Some days my mother stayed home and cared for us if we were sick, some days my father.They are so in sync with each other that there were no social norms that I could see because they both did everything.

Through the past couple weeks I have seen how afraid people can get. A strong woman is out of there comfort zone. They're not used to having women in charge. I act like it's normal because all my life I have watched my mom walk around with power and how she isn't scared of any task put in front of her. She just knows everything. Watching Lemonade so far has really opened up my eyes into new light. America is supposed to be equal, equal opportunity for all. Equal for every race, immigrant, belief system, and gender. This is a dream, and through evolution of the human, it seems impossible. I thank Beyonce for opening up my eyes when I didn't even realize they were closed.