“The concept of African American female literacies as I explore it here refers to ways of knowing and acting and the development of skills, vernacular or expressive arts and crafts that help females to advance and protect themselves and their loved ones in society” (Richardson 681). Obtaining different literacies are very important when it comes to success in our society! To think that just by knowing , developing and acting on a particular literacy, anyone can make a difference. Not only will the difference be made when it comes to themselves, but also when it comes to their families and future generations that will one day be inspired by this sharing of knowledge. For this reason it is important that all women and men take education seriously because you never know what difference you can make in the life of someone just by being educated. Back in slavery times many women would steal books from the ‘master’s” house, read them, and then share them with those in the slave community. Not only did this promote knowledge, but it promoted unity in this particular community. This unity birthed many plans for escape and freedom! Education, sharing and unity play key roles in making a difference in any society and everyone should take advantage of any literacy could possibly cross your path. Many also say that knowledge is power! Just think if each and every woman knew who they were and was proud of who they are what a difference it would make in a society that in many cases views us in a very derogatory manner. “Young black females often struggle to invent themselves against the distorted images….”(Richardson 676). This can be related to education, not only should we consider the difference that can be made through education or the acquiring of literacies, but we should also see the difference that can be made by holding our self to a standard! With this standard there would never be distorted images of any woman because the only image that would be seen is that of a strong, intelligent, caring and giving African American women! Remember Anthony Robbins once said that, “Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards!”

Transformative College Literacy

There were many turning points for me in the “Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Women Peer Counselors” essay by Robin Wisniewski. First the slow start made it difficult for me to get into it. Maybe it was outlining of what it means to be a black woman or the constant in text sites to validate what she was saying. Second, it wasn’t until I realized that she was a white woman that I understood why it was somewhat necessary for her to take this route. The color of her skin did not bother me but the interesting background gave me a holistic view as I continued to read. In Wisniewski’s essay a few things turned me off completely however there were things I could relate to or wanted to better understand.

One thing I neglected to do when reading a scholar essay was to explore some of the references in the cited section. After Wisniewski pointed out she had only drew from white males to describe the schema theory I was turned off because I had accepted her references without thinking twice about it. She noted how close minded her findings could be and I started to see that there is more to reading an essay than just the words. You have to understand where the data is coming from and understand it before you accept it. Immediately following the unveiling of the author’s race she dove into the accounts of two college black women named Lauryn and Vania.

The two women came from different backgrounds. One of the women came from an urban area and majority black high school, and the other woman came from a rural area and majority white school. Both accounts included there isolated filled experience at their majority white college. The author shows the growth the women find in serving as peer counselors. The job consists of encouraging, motivating and giving students a voice. The women mention the stronger connection they felt with the school because of this program.

Willful Servants

“The servant of the people is down among them, living as they live, doing what they do and enjoying what they enjoy…such beliefs are the very elements that distinguish true teaching as an art of service (Dowdy 51). This particular quote as a resounding affect on any and everybody who reads it. I have found that the greatest leaders, Pastors, Doctors, Lawyers and yes, teachers are those who look past the title that was afforded to them and stand in the gap to inspire those who follow them. Through this belief not only do those who follow these inspirational individuals change, but they also become inspired to one day be leaders themselves. Maybe not in the realm of leadership that the one that once inspired them occupied, but a leader in what they were called to do rather that be a missionary, mailman, counselor, dance instructor. These individuals take in so much by watching these “servants” that they decided to serve themselves and the theme of “Teaching to touch a life forever” becomes “Leading to touch a life forever!” Even today in my life, those teachers and leaders who were and are passionate about what they are doing in their lives always inspire me to do my very best and in school always cause me to like a subject such as U.S. History way more than I did before I entered their classroom. It is our job as the current generation to prepare to inspire and leave lasting impacts on those in the next generation and by being a willful servant we will accomplish just that.

Lessons from Down Under

In the article the author describes her literary experiences in the south. She explains how her oral literary experiences shaped her as a African American female. She concludes that what she learned in school did not teach nor enrich her culturally. In the article it also describes how she feels about oral traditions and how this has preserved our history as African Americans over the years. I completely agree with this article. I feel as though school prepares you to handle the real world but the literary experiences you have with those who look like you are the most important. When you are not culturally astute how will you function around those who are culturally different from you. In the article the author also explains how oral tradition is discredited by mainstream society. I completely agree with her opinion, some believe that it is inaccurate because of human error. Most of African cultural traditions are rooted in oral history. Hence, by American standards African American culture is obsolete. For so long blacks in America were not allowed to read and write. Was there any other way we could safely communicate? The article also describes race in America and how she experience racial struggles with literacy. The author explain how she was complementing for making her race "look good" due to her intelligence. She questioned this statement and wondered why she couldn't make society look good. I feel that often times this is the case with most African Americans. Whites will only see you as a token to your race. They will never see you as contributing to society in any way. It hurts me to see that black people even now are not excepted because of their literary capabilities. At the same time I do believe that black perpetuate negative stereotypes about themselves. Until African Americans educate themselves as a whole and strive to be literate we cannot change the standards put on us as a community.

Black and on Welfare Blog

Black and on Welfare: What You Don’t Know About Single-Parent Women by Sandra Golden was an eye opening essay about the often neglected personal side to women on welfare. She started the essay with the following quote from Maya Angelou, “Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible and live long lives. The struggle for equality continues unabated, and the woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory”. Angelou is a renowned writer who is known for inspiring black women to be aware of their strength and use all of their positive attributes to build on to their self esteem. Golden dissolved the barriers among black women from different financial backgrounds by pulling from a writer we could all relate to.

In the essay Golden recalls her experience being on welfare. She starts by outlining her pregnant, unemployed, and homeless circumstances. At the time Golden was 20 years old and she vividly expresses how she felt dehumanized and humiliated after leaving the welfare office. Golden goes further to claim black women are stereotyped as ignorant and lazy with minimum education or skills by the social workers. Like a good writer she is vulnerable in her testimony and used her personal experiences to make the story of a single woman on welfare more compelling to the reader. Like a great writer she followed her account with several accounts from different black women, and writers to report similar stories. Golden even used the welfare reform law of 1996 to discredit welfare training programs designed without integrally learning about the women who need them.

I enjoyed the essay because I could relate to Golden’s experiences. The women told stories that reminded me of things my mother had said. Being polite despite a person looking down on you was a big one. My mother knew she needed to take care of her family and sometimes smiling when you wanted to cry was necessary. Honestly I did not like going down to those offices and in some ways this experience inspired me to do better. Golden was 20 and on welfare and now is pursuing a doctorate degree in curriculum.

“Why Negotiate?”

“How do young African American females negotiate stereotypical representations of African American culture, gender, labor, and sexual values in rap music videos?” (Richardson Pg 791). To evaluate or estimate the nature, quality, ability, extent or significance of something is the value of something. Values and standards are two very important traits to have. In legal matters negotiating may be a positive choice, but when it comes to representation, modesty, respect and let’s not neglect being our sister’s keeper, we must take a stand and stand for what is right! A common phrase always said is if you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything! I don’t plan to allow myself to fall or my sisters; for this reason we must all take a stand! Stand for respect, stand for lady life qualities and attributes, stand for literacy and intelligence! Take a stand! A music video should never define who we are as women or dictate to the world around us who we are and how we act! Instead we should show this in our every day actions and attitudes. We must stop settling for less, we must stop degrading ourselves for money, male attention, or self gratification, we must take a stand! We always hear that when we entered the gates to Spelman we made a choice to change the world! I say take a stand that will inspire a desire for what is right, ignite a fire for respect and dignity and educate others to change the world!!

"Reel Women: Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films"

This article explains the portrayal of black women's literacy in mainstream film. I thoroughly enjoyed the article because it made me think more in depth about how black women are viewed by white society and how this image is paralleled in motion pictures. An interesting fact that I obtained from the article was that a recurring theme in movies with a black female lead is that a black woman can only succeed with the assistance of a white benefactor. A majority of black women on screen are illiterate or posses minimal literary capabilities. Dowdy explains in the article that a particular character's literacy in a film can be determined by who the character surrounds themselves with or what type of situation they are in. For example, if a character surrounds themselves by drug dealers and prostitutes this particular character is most likely a high school dropout. Another example, is if a character is facing a pending eviction notice they probably have not attained a high school diploma. Dowdy continues with explaining nine films that were released over a sixteen year period. Each film has a black female lead but no character is without a major flaw. Most seem to have slight literary proficiency to none at all. (With the exception of a teacher who eventually commits suicide. So I have come to the conclusion she doesn't count.) However I do disagree with Dowdy's critique on how Celie from The Color Purple did not posses much literacy in the film. I highly disagree because in the film and in the book the main character learns how to read and write through her sister Nettie. Also when she was unfortunately separated from her she faithfully wrote letters to her sister on a weekly basis.
When reading the critiques on each film I found that all were indeed very similar. A majority of black women portrayed did not have a college degree nor were interested in pursuing higher education. Most seemed to be determined but helpless without the assistance or support of a white benefactor. Many abandoned their responsibilities to help a white person in need. After reading this article I feel like I will become more critical of films and the filmmakers intent. I never realized that nearly every black woman in film was heavily burdened by the woes of illiteracy. I might not notice the situation this of a black female character but someone of a different culture might think that all blacks are this way in reality. Through this article I have realized that film perpetuates the stereotypical views that white society has about black culture. In addition I have realized how important it is for black people to get involved in the media to reverse the stereotypes presented in films. Until then I feel as though black women in particular will be portrayed distastefully. -Maya Dixon

She was Workin Like Foreal Blog

Rap and black music videos have recently undergone major criticism. All at once, parents, students, professors and media personalities appeared to be concerned with the content used by these hip hop artists. More specifically I recall uproar at Spelman College. Rap artist Nelly visited the school to perform some of his latest hits and to find a compatible bone marrow donor for his sister. Spelman students used the opportunity to question Nelly face to face about his Tip Drill video. Anyone who has seen the video would definitely understand the concern these students had. He defended the video by explaining it was simply a form of entertainment. For obvious reasons the meeting did not go well and the situation spiraled out of control with news clippings bashing the Saint-Lewis artist. It is hard to pick a side in this story because both sides made convincing arguments.

I am certain that Nelly’s intentions for visiting the school outweighed the importance to bombard him with an unscheduled and inappropriate meeting about his video. How can we change the world if we are always going against the grain with inappropriate offensive techniques? My mother always tells me you can get more bees with honey than you can with vinegar. The all or nothing mentality will not work every time and in the end you are making enemies and not forming alliances for the future. Not only did we burn bridges with a major artist who could have helped our school make major changes in the presentation of hip hop but we made it harder to work with any other major artists in the future.

After the incident there was a small symposium at Spelman College. During this time we looked at pictures of black women to identify our ideas of beauty. We analyzed rap lyrics and videos that degraded black women. There was a Spelman student there who told us about a party she went to and her experience. She told us that while she was on the dance floor a guy pulled his penis out and attempted to have sex with her. Everyone in the room immediately turned in her favor without thinking about the entire encounter. I asked her how was she dancing and she looked at me and started laughing. My point to her was you cannot provoke a person and be completely surprised by their reaction. Sure he was wrong but at what point will women take responsibility for their own actions. The biggest issue is a lack of morals, priorities and self esteem among many of these women. We look at celebrities and expect them to be the role models and world saviors in our communities. Ok and that is fine but we should hold those same expectations for ourselves.

"Building on a Firm Foundation"

“African American women were inspired in a context of resistance, as Stewart implores, to show forth to the world that ye are endowed with noble and exalted faculties” ( Going Against the Grain Pg 110). Wow! What a firm foundation that has been set before us! The aim of these African American women, through acquiring different forms of literacy was to gain the knowledge that they knew would help them in their future endeavors. Despite there conditions, they rose above and decided to claim what was rightfully there’s, and that is an education. Today, in my generation, I feel that instead of my peers taking that sturdy foundation and building on it, and taking this world by storm to change it, I feel as though we have stayed in the same mindset of inferiority and degradation causing a drop in our graduation rates and a rise in things not pertaining to the advancement of our society. I feel as though if every individual desired on the level that our ancestors did to become educated and to show our society that we are great contributors, I feel that this mindset would benefit all as a whole. During this time many, “… the acquisition of literacy by African American women is very much a story of struggle, resistance, and resiliency” (Going Against the Grain pg 114). With this being said, it is important to note that the acquiring of literacy today compared to the struggle and hardship of acquiring literacy back then can not compare. This generation had been allotted far more opportunities to advance themselves in such ways so that now we can become not only strong women who take care of the household duties, which is an awesome job by it self, but we also can be executives and CEO’s of huge companies, Doctors, Lawyers, inspiring teachers and dynamic writers! We are capable of so much as a people, and I feel that it is time for us to take our place, walk in who God created us to be, and plan to change the world!

"Going Against the Grain: The Acquisition and Use of Literacy"

This article described how black women prevailed in gaining literacy despite being oppressed. I found this article very empowering and I felt it was one of the most positive readings we have read so far. My favorite part of the the article is when the author described how oral storytelling is one way in which women prevailed in regards to literacy. Even after the post slavery era woman have been second class citizens making it more difficult for women to receive a proper education. Especially in the south, black women were shunned from educational opportunities and did not obtain equal education as whites. I found most interesting that in the article African Americans had an easier time finding an education in urban areas rather than rural. In the article a woman named Maria W. Steward is described as one of the pioneers who was a trailblazer for African American women and literacy. Steward began to advocate for African American women’s rights when her husband died and she was left with almost nothing because of her status as a black woman. She published a collection of her writings which were used to show white society that blacks were under served and uneducated. Steward used her writings to create an interest to educate black women. Her writings inspired many women to strive for education to dispel myths about African Americans by becoming literate.I think that today we still have problems with African American children in school not becoming literate because of the negative way whites view African American. Despite many obstacles black women overcome to obtain the literacy even when it is denied to them. Even today the journey is not over for literacy among African American women. Women of African descent are the least educated worldwide so something must be done. I believe that there needs to be more advocate for African American women and literacy.

"Teaching to Learn; Learning to Share"

August 15, 2009 the Spelman College Class of 2013 started their journey on becoming “Free Thinking Women.” We entered a course called African Diaspora and the World where we started reading and analyzing the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Friere. In this article Friere discussed how these days many students have become trash receptacles which take in information without recycling and using it again to change their environment. I found it most interesting that Christina Mcvay says, “I learn from my students. I’m never going to pretend to be an expert on Blackness. And they appreciate that. They get to be a co-teacher, you know?” (McVay and Kilgour Dowdy pg 91). This particular fact caught my attention because she learned so much from her students and what she learned she was able to apply to her life which made her teaching experience an even better one.
When it comes to education it is always important to apply what you have learned and to use that information to motivate others. This reminds me of what. Joanne Kilgour said and that is that, “Black women find themselves seeking ways to share their knowledge and widen the degree of agency that they exercise in this society!” The way that McVay taught her students allowed them to become positive, knowledgeable people in our society. The teachings required them to accept who they are and to share that part of them with their surroundings.
My mentor Evangelist Bridgette Wright once told me. “that when you find out who you are in Jesus, embrace it and walk in who you are!” Looking at education in a different perspective is always important in life. McVay’s student’s were taught to look at English with a fresh perspective as opposed to only following others opinion of English. This life changing perspective not only allows an individual to learn to appreciate something for themselves, but it allows them to appreciate what they have to share with the world.
All in all, it is important to remember that everyone has a particular purpose in life, and when you live out this particular purpose you will enjoy life even the more.

Reflection Number Two

Leonie C.R. Smith’s To be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation was a moving essay about a black girl’s pursuit to discover and rediscover literacy, self worth and independence. Smith evaluated her life experiences in Antigua and in the United States. In Antigua she was at the top of her academic class but in the U.S. she was labeled illiterate. Smith says this was because she was unfamiliar with the material or the new testing format. In Antigua she felt comfortable with her appearance because everyone looked similar to her. In the United States the definition of beauty was changed and she was no longer considered the normal idea of beauty. Finally in both Antigua and the United States Smith displayed extreme independence. Whether she was migrating to a new place or dealing with racism at a white majority school, she continued to be in her abilities, have faith and hold on to her cultural values.
I really enjoyed the reading because of the level of intimacy in the writing. No one was telling me, “O white people are like this” or “O black people are like this”. The essay was about a black woman’s personal account and I was more accepting of her story because of this factor. Smith simply said, ‘This is what happened to me’, and it made her story more real to me. I could feel her emotions as I turned each page and I felt as though I could relate to this black woman. For instance, when spoke about her rebelling at a young age or how she felt alienated in a room filled with white people or even the comfort she felt around other black people, I could see myself.
Smith’s story was an eye opener to how real racism is. I feel as though everyone, particularly black and white people, could benefit from this piece of literature. Being more aware of how we treat each other and how we respond to how others treat us, are two lessons I was reminded of after reading this selection.

Literacy and Black Women Reflection

I was familiar with most of the information presented in Literacy and the Black Woman. Though I found it somewhat negative, it gave me a new perspective on some of the issues facing black women. Let me start by saying it saddened me to learn that the majority of women who were unable to read and considered illiterate were of African descent. I was surprised that illiteracy was still an issue among the black community. In the article it pointed out that Illiteracy is hard to eradicate when children have no one to read to them or expose them to literature.
Through this article I found that this is one of the reasons why illiteracy continues for generations. Not a lack of ability but by a lack of exposure. While reading the article I couldn’t hold back the feeling of helplessness. The only thing I could think was how I wanted to help these illiterate people but I’m not sure exactly how. I also feel upset because I am in school striving for higher education and there many who don’t even know how to read a children’s book.
Another interesting fact that I gained from reading the first chapter was that many women live too far away or don’t have enough money to go to school. The United States contrasts this because most schools are placed near neighborhoods so families can have easy access to them. In addition public schools are free and open to every child.
Although there are many roadblocks for illiterate black women I feel there is a glimmer of hope. I think some type of global intervention should be implemented to help increase the literacy rates. Literacy is an important skill that everyone should have but there are so many simple things preventing that from happening. I believe that the world would be more productive if everyone was literate.