Voices of Our Foremothers

I am quite disappointed that this will be the last time I blog for this class. I had never blogged prior to this class and now I have become quite fond of it. I have enjoyed reading all about African-American women and their literacies and discussing my opinions on them. My last blog will be on Voices of Our Foremothers by Sunny-Marie Birney.

Birney is an African-American woman who was adopted by people of European descent. Her essay Voices of Our Foremothers discusses and explains how she used her “foremothers” of education to guide her in life. She discusses how she was thankful for being adopted, but at the same time she felt like a motherless child because she was disconnected from her culture. She also discusses her relationships with her female African-American teachers and how they helped guide and became some of her foremothers. She explained how each one helped her become the woman that she is today and she thanks them. She also pays tribute to other African-American female educators such as Mary McLeod Bethune, Emma Wilson and Lucy Laney.

I directly related to this article because I want to become a teacher. In this article Birney talked about educators I had not heard of, for example Ms. Emma Wilson. I did not know that she was the founder of Ms. Bethune’s elementary school and Ms. Bethune is someone who I consider to a be a foremother. After reading this essay I can add another to list. I also directly related to this article because like Birney I want to be able to teach young African-Americans about their history, I want them to be informed and be able to know that they come from greatness.

Hidden Lessons

“Negative status for Black American females … need to be examined for greater understanding. (page 41)” Many times we take in the negative experiences of our life and think nothing more of it. We often times view it as just another mishap in our lives, because we ultimately expect it to happen. We never think about the effect that it actually has on us. As Lillie Gayle Smith says in her essay, “Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field,” she never really thought about her actual life experiences and the positive aspects of it until it was really brought to her attention in a Black Women’s Literacy Class. Just as Smith only stated her past experiences when it was used for boasting, we do the same thing. She did not see the positive connection between life and the cotton field. This is not all her fault though. Many African Americans are unsure of what should and should not be seen as positive so they automatically assume that what is seen as negative in one place is seen as negative all the way around. As an individual, we have to think about all aspects of a situation, whether it be negative or positive, and how we can use them as lessons in our everyday life.

As Simple as A Knife and Fork

“Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge from an African-American Female Growing Up In Rural Alabama” is an essay by Bessie House-Soremekun that explains how she viewed literacy growing up in Alabama. In this essay she describes why literacy among African-Americans is important, the informal and formal literacies of the American South and how each have impacted her. She explains that literacy is a big part of her life because everyone in her family is literate and promoted it. Her mother, grandmother and uncle were all school teachers and her father was a military man. They all went to college and wanted their children to do the same. She talks about coming from a large close knit family and explains that African-American literacies begin at home with oral storytelling (informal literacy). She also goes on to explain how the informal literacy she learned at home helped her to understand the “formal” literacy that led to the unwritten rules of the south.

House-Soremekun spends a lot of time with her grandmother who is also named Bessie. Her grandmother was born and raised in the late 1800’s. In her essay she re-tells multiple stories that her grandmother has told her, but the one that stood out to me the most was the one her great grandfather. After being emancipated the first thing House-Soremekun’s great grandfather did was go out and by himself a knife and fork; something that he was deprived of because he was a slave. He and the other slaves were forced to eat from troughs with the pigs with no utensils. By not giving them utensils the slave owners were enforcing the fact African-Americans were barbarians. This made me think about my life today. Many of my friends tease me because I eat just about everything with a knife and fork. They call me “proper” and make jokes like “afraid to get your hands a little dirty?” I used to get upset, but after reading this I will not because my ancestors did not have any utensils at all. I feel truly blessed because I have the choice to use a knife and fork. It may seem silly but, this was something African-Americans were unable to do before.

Dysfunctional Literacies



In “Dysfunctional Litereacies of Exclusion: An Exploration of the Burdens of Literacy in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions,” Mandi Chikombero discusses two types of literacy. The two types of literacies that he discusses are traditional literacy and colonial/modern literacy. Chikombero uses the characters in Nervous Conditions as examples. The examples that he gives elaborates on the backgrounds of most African Americans. The chapter explains that traditional literacy is the foundation for colonial literacy because it begins in the home. He  proves that in most cases traditional literacy has a lot to do with race and gender. In the Black race, most men are seen to have modern literacy. If you are a female that is literate, it is hard for you to display your knowledge without criticism. Through the quote, “Literature…is a reflection of society” (p. 150), he says that he is describing the society in which we live today. I completely agree with him on his observations and examples.

Good Ole Bill's PRWORA

“Black and on Welfare: What You Don’t Know About Single-Parent Women” is a wonderful essay written by Sandra Golden that describes her experiences being on government assistance, her studies on it and as well as her research on it. Her essay argues that majority of women on governmental assistance programs have low academic literacy, but are very high social literacy. This meaning that even though they are undereducated or uneducated all together, that they still understand and can describe the injustices and

discrmination that they face being on welfare. Her studies prove this.

One of her first research groups dealt with black women affected by Bill Clintons “end of welfare as we know it.” It was called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). This act was created to “provide assistance to needy families so that children can be taken care of in their own homes or in the homes of relatives; to end dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work and marriage; to prevent and reduce out of wedlock babies and encourage the formation and maintence of two parent families.” (Golden 29) Reading this quote disgusted me and made me feel like a moocher and I am not even on government assistance. If you ask me the government does more harm than “assistance.” It does not stop there though. Every person affected under the PRWORA is assigned a self-sufficiency coach that is supposed to help them with job training and budgeting, but these “coaches” do more harm than good as well.

Many of the women in her study felt disrespected and belittled by these “coaches.” “The participants also believed the disrespect was a manifestation of social perceptions that individuals on public assistance are uneducated and lazy.” (Golden 30) The coaches were there to help these women pick up their lives so that they would not need to be on public assistance anymore. They felt that because the women had little to no academic literacy that they did not want to better themselves. The coaches were supposed to be setting them up for success not failure. How can the United States government want people to do better for themselves and their children if they do not give them the proper resources?

Ms Celie's Journey

My friends and I often joke that you are not considered black until you have seen “The Color Purple.” As a child I remember falling asleep on the movie because t was so long. I did not begin to fully understand the movie until middle school when I picked up the book and began to read it. It was when I actually read the words that I began to piece together the main character Celie’s life. After reading the book, every time I watched the movie I began to fully understand her journey and struggle with literacy.

Celie is the main character in Alice Walker’s novel turned movie, The Color Purple. The Color Purple
described what it meant to be in the early part of 20^th century in the rural American south. At a young age Celie is raped by her stepfather, bares him two children and is given away in an arranged marriage to a man with children. All through Celie’s life she is made to feel as though she is nothing. From a young age she was constantly told that she was ugly and dumb so she grew up to believe that. She was always comparing herself to other women and downgrading her appearance. With the help of her husbands mistress and her estranged sister Nettie, Celie becomes literate and breaks free from her chains of oppression.

In the essay “Women and Literacy in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple,” the author E. Yvette Walters describes the five major literary categories that women find themselves and how Celie goes through each category to become an active literate woman. The first category is silence. It is when a woman hears everything around her, but does think of herself as being capable to understand it. The next stage is received knowledge and that is when a woman can comprehend what is being said , but will not speak out of fear of sounding dumb or stupid. The third category is when a woman starts becoming aware of who she is and what she wants to become. The fourth category is understanding what is right is not always right and relying on you and those around you to find out what is right. The final category is separation of their thoughts from her thoughts so that she has her opinions about life, which is essentially what a literate person is. I enjoyed reading this article because I was able to look at one of my favorite movies and understand the main character better.

Women In Films

Films help suggest Black people and their culture in past eras. “Because Black women still live within the barriers that mainstream American society organizes through decisions made on the basis of skin color, language, financial background, and educational preparations, it is sometimes difficult to construct the social circumstances within which a Black female character is depicted in a movie (Dowdy 164). As you all know, the media is and has always been the most influential of all sources of knowledge. They have influenced for years and years. Although this is a positive thing, the negative to this situation is that the media has been evoking the same images since the beginning. These images have not totally been representative of each and everything that there is to represent. Why does most film covers or cases suggest to the consumer that the movie that they are about to watch is about a Black woman that is low-literate (Dowdy 174)? This is a result of the images that have been embedded in the mindsets of both White and Black people by means of the media. Even though there are hard-working, intelligent, and talented women in the world, there is a failure to represent them, because of this continuous cycle.

The Black Voice

The school system convinces Blacks that they hate English, through the way that they present it to them. It is not until they reach the collegiate level that they may realize that they actually enjoy it. (pg 89) Is this the main reason for such a high rate of high school dropouts, especially among African Americans?

"It is important to be supportive of Black men in their times of tribulation, rather than give up on them, but because a lot of people, especially males of African decent, have a “double conscious,” they see the world not only through their eyes." (pg 91) Instead, they see the world through the eyes that others see them through. As a result, they do not put forth as much effort as they should, because everyone is already expecting them to fail and no one is there when they really need them.

On the other hand, some African American women who do not fall to under the negative characteristics, such as jezebel, and attend college find that consensus English, also known as “proper English,” is not as bad as the school system made it out to be.

African Americans inherit a God-given gift of creativity when it comes to language. I mean let us take into consideration the tribulations of our ancestors. The only problem is being open with it. (pg 89) After all, the distinctive goal of literary works is to share emotions and influence others, but how can you influence others if you do not share?

Being A Spelman Woman ♥

"Transformative College Literacy of Black Women Peer Counselors" by Robin Wisniewski is essay depicting the development of a peer counselor group from women in college.  In the essay Wisniewski describes the steps she took to create this group and the reasons why she created it.  She talked about the formation of the group, the application process and the results of her program.  While reaading this essay a particular quote stood out to me, “Because elite white men and their representatives control structures of knowledge validation, white male interests pervade the thematic of traditional scholarship. As a result, Black women’s experiences…have been routinely distorted in or excluded from traditional discourse.(291)” (pg.73).

This quote is from research in 1990 by Collins.  Wisniewski used this quote to justify her reasoning for creating a peer counseling group for Black women at her college.  She knew that the Black woman needed a little support to in order to succeed and that there is not much encouragement for them in higher education.  There are few institutions dedicated to the success of Black women, and I am proud to be enrolled at one.

Spelman College is the number one historically black institution of learning in America. Not only is Spelman an all black college, it is also an all women’s college. I consider it the center of all things black, female and literate and I am also proud to be a student at this esteemed college.
The beauty of Spelman College is that it caters to the education of the black woman unlike private white institutions (PWI) or other historically black institutions of learning. Before making my decision to attend Spelman I toured many college campuses; majority of them being PWI. I sat in on classes, ate in their cafeterias and talked with students about how they felt about their campus. As a black woman I did not feel connected to these schools. There were few students that looked like me and fewer who could relate to my struggle of being from the inner city.
What attracted me to Spelman the most was that everywhere I turned their was a black, female, educated face. Even though each face differed from the one next to her they each shared those same characteristics. I felt that Spelman was the perfect place for me to grow into a black woman; that this school was designed with me in mind. I feel that if there were more primary, intermediate, high schools and even colleges like Spelman that the literacy rate among black women would rise significantly.

Going Against The Grain Pt.3

Many African Americans that are successful in life and have an option of what opportunities they want to give their children choose not to send their children to public schools. These African-Americans do this because they fear the public school system. This fear stems from the assumption of “a southern-designed system of ‘Black’ education.” (pg 24) Why is this? I still cannot seem to grasp this concept. I feel as if this is somewhat of a contradiction.
Many of these African-Americans came through the southern school system and yet, they turned out to be a successful members of society. They are priveleged in having the means to choose where their children attend school, and they make the choice to send them to predominantly white schools. I then pose this question, what is wrong with letting your children go through that same educational system that you were in? I feel as though they feel that the educational system that they went to was inadequate and not challenging enough for them. Because of this, they want their children to have a better education then they did which is understandable.
Many African Americans that are successful in life and have an option of what opportunities they want to give their children choose not to send their children to public schools. These African-Americans do this because they fear the public school system. This fear stems from the assumption of “a southern-designed system of ‘Black’ education.” (pg 24) Why is this? I still cannot seem to grasp this concept. I feel as if this is somewhat of a contradiction.
Many of these African-Americans came through the southern school system and yet, they turned out to be a successful members of society. They are priveleged in having the means to choose where their children attend school, and they make the choice to send them to predominantly white schools. I then pose this question, what is wrong with letting your children go through that same educational system that you were in? I feel as though they feel that the educational system that they went to was inadequate and not challenging enough for them. Because of this, they want their children to have a better education then they did which is understandable.
In some cases, Black schools receive a lot of media attention for the negative things that happen versus the positive things that occur. For example, the high school that I attended was known for its riots and stabbings, because that is all the news would cover. On the contrary, they never seemed to get any coverage on the protest that occurred. All in all, I feel as if these contradictions are ultimately not helping the “Black” school system. If these successful African-Americans would use the money they are spending on predominantly white private schools for children would instead donate the money used to predominantly Black schools, that they could make their local public schools better.

Going Against the Grain



In my Introduction to Technical Theatre and Desgin class, my professor Mr. Thomasson said “You are a speck on a grain of sand on the beach of time. You are a speck. You are nothing, but at the same time you are everything.” He then when on and told us that as specks we can combine ideas with other specks and grow to become grains that could possibly affect the entire beach.

While reading “Going Against the Grain” I thought about his metaphor and related it those who wanted to teach the slaves to read. The Revered Samuel Thomas, The Reverend Doctor Thomas Bray and Elias Neau were some of the first to “go against the grain” and begin to advocate for Blacks to be educated. These men left their homes in England and traveled to the new world to set up schools to teach Blacks and other minorities to read.

Rev. Thomas, Rev. Dr, Bray and Mr. Neau were specks who got together to form a grain that would help increase literacy in Blacks. These men knew that what they were going against the status quo by teaching Blacks to read but they did not care. They felt that everyone should be literate. These men left their homes in England and traveled to America, spread out and went to major cities to educate Blacks. Because of their initiative over 1000 Blacks were taught how to read and write.



Evolved Mindsets

Women have always had to define themselves as human beings, rather than animals, in order to establish a place for themselves under the law as rightful holders of the entitlements of citizenship, including opportunities for literacy and learning. (pg. 108) As years have passed the perspective of women, especially African American women, have evolved tremendously.

Elanie Richardson tells us in “To Protect and Serve,” that in the beginning, women were often seen under two spectrums. These spectrums were either housewives also known as “mammies,” or women with high sex drives better known as “jezebels.” As we all know, along with these two types of women, we also have educated women that do not fall under either of these spectrums.  As time progressed educated women began to influence other women. They have done this by taking a stand telling their stories and even beginning to write them themselves so that this who viewpoint will become a rare one.

 In modern time, it is rare that you see an image of an African American woman that is empowering. Instead, we are more likely to see of the mammy on cleaning and cooking commercials, and the jezebel in places like the cover of magazines or in music videos.  Although some problems still remain, it is safe to say that African American women have used literacy to begin changing the definition that others have of them. As a result, problems have begun to be solved not only in the category of being an individual of African decent, but in the category of being as female too.



Literacy and the Black Woman

The media's image of Black women is not a good one. We are either seen as objects of lust and desire, video vixens or modern day Jezebel’s, or the single mother trying to raise her children on paycheck made for a single person, modern day Mammies. My question is, where are the average Black women? The ones who have a college education, a well-paying job, a husband, and children. Where is she? Why are all the images that see of Black women negative or something unattainable like being the next Beyonce or Rihanna? I am not saying that being a singer is unattainable career, I am just saying not everyone can sign a 40 million dollar contract. I feel that as Black women and children, we should aspire to be more than what we see on television. We should look past the Beyonce’s and the Rihanna’s and the Jennifer Hudson’s and find other successful Black women. We should dream about discovering the next star as an astronomer rather than trying to be the next “star” discovered. There are so many opportunities out there for us, we just need to find them. With that said, the only way we can find these opportunities is if we become literate. We as a people are so strong that I know we can do this. We have sat by and let our men deteriorate and become an “endangered species (Richardson, 8)," we cannot have this for ourselves. We must become literate and reach our full potential.
　
“The idea that the Black woman had to sacrifice herself for the greater good of the race has had both positive and negative ramifications. Even black men began to accept prevailing beliefs that Black women should sacrifice for and nurture the race. Women were to leave the hard stuff to the men. We continue to see this opinion in effect today, and society’s consistent subordination of women’s own ideals has left a particularly negative impact on the Black woman. (Darling, 18)"

“The Black woman represents strength and endurance, yet she also represents what we consider to be at risk and poverty. Oxymoronic as these concepts are, she represents them all. She occupies a tier of society that binds us all, yet she is the most ignored within the structure of society. Because she represents aspects of our being that many wish ignore, she is then overlooked. (Darling, 15)" We as Black women have to make an effort to change these views, so that they will not be all that we stand for.

The Black Voice

The school system convinces Blacks that they hate English, through the way it is presented to them. It is not until they reach the collegiate level that Blacks realize that they actually enjoy reading. (pg 89) Is this the main reason for such a high rate of high school dropouts, especially among Blacks?

It is important to be supportive of Black men in their times of tribulation, rather than give up on them. Many people, especially males of African decent, have a “double conscious.”  Double conscious is concept created by the Black scholar W.E.B. DuBois.  With double consciousness people do not see the world through their eyes. (pg 91) Instead, they see the world through the eyes that others see them through. As a result, they do not put forth as much effort as they should, because everyone is already expecting them to fail and no one is there when they really need them.  On the other hand, Black women who do not fall under the negative stereotypes such as jezebels, and mammies that go on attend college find that consensus English, also known as “proper English,” is not as bad as the school system made it out to be.

African Americans inherit a God-given gift of creativity when it comes to language. Take into consideration the tribulations of our ancestors. The only problem is being open with it. (pg 89) After all, the distinctive goal of literary works is to share emotions and influence others, but how can you influence others if you do not share?

Thanks Mom♥

From a young age, my mother always told me that I could do anything I wanted to in life. She preached the importance of having great versus good grades, as well as the importance of taking my education seriously. She wanted me to have all the opportunities she either missed out on or could not obtain. Like Ms. Smith’s parents, my mother also is an intelligent individual and financial issues prevented her from attending college. Throughout my entire my life, my mother has been both my biggest critic and supporter, because she wants the best for me. She believed in me even when I was too blind too believe in my own self. She is one of the main reasons that I am at Spelman today.

My mother encouraged me to dream big. She has always supported my career aspirations, nothing was ever too big, too small, or expensive. She was my biggest advocate for Spelman. I initially did not want to attend because I thought that it was going to be a financial burden, but she told me that if I wanted to go that she would find a way to pay for it.

In her essay, Ms. Smith said “I was never discouraged from pursuing an education as a child. I was never told that there were limitations to what I could achieve. I was free to dream and in my dreams I could become anything I wanted to be. (Smith, 186)" When I read this, I immediately thought about my mother and all of her sacrifices for me. There were times when I thought what she was doing was wrong, unfair and sometimes cruel, but now I see why and understand her logic. She wanted me to able to do more in life than the average person, because she knew that her baby girl was beyond average.

Positive or Negative Storytelling

The purpose of a story is to describe how people make sense of the events of their lives, experiences, and actions (pg 122). With that being said, the most important rule in most African American households is to not be an example of a negative stereotype that is imposed upon Blacks by Whites. (pg 133) Is this the result of positive or negative actions?

 In some cases, one will bring up a story as a result of another story that is being shared. These numerous stories can be shared together for ages, because they now hold a collective meaning. Even if they are not always being told together, those that heard them will be influenced and will go on to use its morals in their daily rountines. Regardless if the story holds negative information, it could still have a positive influence upon its audience.

As a result of her research, Banks-Wallace said, “to understand the stories of African American women it is important to accept the values and experience that contribute to the composition of each story. (pg 132) Most Black women were stereotyped as “Jezebels” or “Mammies,” whereas the men found it necessary to be seen as cool, so when the men became that stereotype it left the women at home to bare both parental responsibilities. The unimportance of a man began to be embedded upon future generations, which is why their stories have gone from those of distress to those of independence.

Banks-Wallace’s findings illustrate that the six functions of stories have not changed over generations. (pg 132) Although this is true, I am inclined to conclude that the emphasis of the functions have changed over time. And those who actually listen to the stories versus contradicting them can learn something.

"To Protect And Serve"

“To Protect and Serve” by Elaine Richardson was a excellent essay that discussed the histories of black women‘s literacy. I enjoyed reading the essay, because it grabbed my attention and made me curious as to what the other readings would discuss. While reading this essay, many points that Richardson discussed stood out to me. The one that impacted me the most was when she brought up Yahoo search engines and typing in black women. I witnessed the the adult websites that popped up. The first link that popped up when you type in black women is indeed for an adult website. I was truly disappointed. I was glad though that the second link was for “Black Girls Rock,” which was Black Entertainment Television (BET)’s awards show dedicated to outstanding black women. After that however, the adult websites continued. It was very insulting and degrading to see this and it also made me enraged. I feel that these derogatory images of black women should not be the first thing one sees when trying to research black women. The question that popped into my head about this was, what if a young black girl tries to research black women and she types that into the search engine, what she think of herself if all she saw were those degrading images?  We need a better and much more positive media role for our young girls, because if all they see are us as adult movie stars and "video vixens," they will aspire to be nothing more than modern day "Jezebels."  We need to be able to show them that they are more than that and that they can be anything that they want to be and are not limited to what they see.