Literacy and the Black Woman

Literacy and the Black Woman by Sharon Darling

"What does it mean to be a black woman?"

 Black women's literacy is more than just learning to read and write. This question, what does it mean to be a black woman, struck me the most being that it brings up so many diverse subjects with all types of answers. With generations of black women, this answer can alter as time unravels. This chapter introduces the meaning and perception of black women's literacy by posing the historical problems, the need to become more literate as a gender and race, a solution to the problem, and what is being done to solve it. The statistics Darling provides makes the present issue more surreal. I strongly agree with the fact that black women who got married did not formally use the educations they obtained and generally fed into the stereotype of the housewife woman with the working husband. The subject also concerning women with children before the age of twenty leads to so many subjects concerning blacks womens image and education. For example, the topic of welfare can be associated with young mothers and uneducated mothers working low class jobs because of their lack of ability to get ahead in society. I appreciate how Darling incorporated the positive literacies black women have obtained. For example, the ability for women to manage households financially means they have financially literacy. the different literacies remind me of the essay assignment in class based on our definition of literacy. The is so much more than just reading and writing and many black women have always had those other skills.
-Courtney Sykes

"Home literacy, American literacy"

To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A personal Journey in Education by Leonie C.R. Smith

"My education, whatever shape it took, would be a life-process and would become a tool with which I could do the necessary activist work in my community". -Leonie Smith

Leonie Smith, deriving from a family with little education, made it a life-long goal to become educated. Being a black woman from Antigue and then travelling to America forced her to face the struggles of forming a literacy as a Black American women, yet she did not get discouraged. Instead she worked hard to get to a point in her life were she felt her literacy was satisfactory to herself and at the potential she knew she had. The quote above reflects not only her transition from one form of education to another, but her willingness to view education as process that has no boundaries. Viewing literacy as a life-long process creates a continuing literacy of black women. Your literacy does not end once you learn how to read and write, but when you continue to learn and advance your knowledge. We should all view literacy as a life-long process.
In order for Smith to overcome the lack of knowledge in her family back in the carribean and the discouragement she felt in junior high and college, Smith had to know that as a black she women she had to become literate. Referring to the introduction by Kilgour Dowdy, as black women we represent our community. As Smith states in this quote, "..with which I can do the necessary activist work in my community". Becoming  a black literate women should essentially be a benefit to our community.
                                                                                              -Courtney Sykes

Transforming the Way We Think and Learn

In the article "Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Women Peer Counselors" by Robin Wisniewski, the word perception was used throughout to describe literacy.  This article is a study of perception and the transformation teachers and students make throughout their growth in literacy. 

Perception is donated as " the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding."  This article went into detail about the way we as learners perceive.  We all have a different way of understanding the things we are taught.  Also, the way the teacher perceives the lesson is the way students learn.  However, it is up to the teacher and the student to work together to transform the way we think and learn.

The way we think and learn?  Well, we all are taught different ways to learn throughout elementary and secondary school.  As an adult, we sometimes choose the way we want to learn and develop different habits of practice and studying.  Moreover, everyone thinks differently.  However, we change the way we think all of the time.  Without change, there is no growth.  

The more we learn the more we think!

-Keiwana Glover

Teachers Make the World

Sunny-Marie Birney was adopted at the tender age of 2 by White people. All her life she felt as though something was missing something, a piece of that black culture that her adopted parents could not quite offer, since they knew nothing about it. The saying "college changes everything" has never been more applicable and true.
Four women; it is amazing the impact people can have on your life. Four women changed the life of Sunny-Marie Birney in ways she never imagined, and in a sense I can completely relate to her. Coming to Spelman College is a decision that impacts how I, young black woman, will look at life from here on out. I have never been in a community where everyone around me is so talented and educated yet everyone is all different. And I totally understand where she is coming from when she states that "The fact that they were Black women teaching literature, psychology, contemporary issues from a Black woman's perspective touched me." (Birney 50) It is one thing for it to be your peers, it is a completely different ball game when the women teaching you are Black women. It gives you hope - you begin to think if they can do it, then maybe I can do. That is the first step to effecting change in the world; hope.
From her teachers Birney feels a sense of community, like they care about not only her studies but also her well-being. Which is one of the factors that helps her decide she wants to be a teacher - the service mentality. Someone helped her construct her path, it is only honorable to do the same for others.
In closing, Birney is talking about that sense of community in the black community and how four women impacted her life and her journey. this quote puts it best. "The foremothers were concerned with the mind,body, and spirit; thus, the education they constructed with their students emphasized multiple literacies"(Birney 54) The education process shouldn't be only centered on bookwork because one literacy will only get you but so far in this life, hence why she and I appreciated/ appreciate the Black women teachers/ professors in our lives.
-Jheanelle Miller

Beyond the Text, She is More Than A Teacher

Voices of Our Foremothers: Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Women Educators A Personal Dedication


by Sunny-Marie Birney

"To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin."

During this entire course we have discussed literacy and its impact on us as black women. We have often discussed how our community takes education from granted from the student stand point. But what about the people on the other side of the educational divide---the teachers. How many of us have had teachers who were truly passionate about their jobs? How did it affect you, knowing that you had someone outside of your family that truly wanted you to succeed? If you had a teacher who constantly told you that you would fail, how did that affect you?

Birney opens the chapter with a reflection of her past. She was raised by adoptive parents of Euro-descent and therefore never had an understanding of black literacy in the home. Although she had black teachers in grade school, it wasn’t until college that she encountered African American teachers who impacted her in a very positive manner. College served as an avenue for her to learn about her history and culture. At this time, Birney also learned from her professors that not only do they relay knowledge to their students, but they also provide a nurturing role, a sort of maternal literacy if you will. I have learned, not only from this chapter, but also from an educational psychology class, that students do well in a classroom if their teachers’ are supportive of them. For Birney her teachers were like her mothers who transferred school literacy and maternal literacy to her. It is safe to say that a teacher cultivates more than knowledge; they cultivate hope and respect to give to their students. These teachers had such a positive impact on her that Birney decided to become a teacher, so that she too could inspire people to do well and cultivate caring, nurturing relationships with her students. I think teachers do display passion for their profession when they go beyond the call of duty. As African Americans we already have a strike against us and another strike for being women. So I feel the importance of having a strong African American female at the front of the class room gives hope and encouragement for our young women to succeed. From personal experience, I have excelled in classes with nurturing teachers. No, I did not seek a mother in a classroom. However, when a teacher cares about your emotional well-being and not just that grade in the book, it extends a positive aura in the class room. I do well in positive and uplifting environments. So I see how having nurturing teachers in college moved Birney so deeply.

-Britney-Myshante Howard

Back To Community

In the time it takes to update my status on Facebook, tell all of my "Tweeps" what I'm doing on twitter, send an email, and answer a text, my great grandmother is probably still walking down the hall of her senior citizen building taking lunch to a needy neighbor. In the world of Facebook, Twitter, texting, and email, we rarely see people that are around us. It is very simple to get a task done across the world by simply sending a message. The world has changed in the sense that people no longer communicate.
     In the days of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. communication was key to their success. They also had a great deal of "stick-to-it-tiveness" which means they didn't simply give up on a task that seemed difficult. With all of our modern technology our generation has begun to want everything at microwave speed and if the problem isn't solved by the time we awake the next day we are sometimes ready to quit. in Soremekun's article, she talks about the changes or lack of change she witnessed in society throughout her life. She mentions the bus boycott and the length of time that the participants stuck to their task in order to reach a desired goal.
     I also like the sense of community that was present in the home. Although the families didn't have much, they sat as a family to listen to the radio. Now days we see having a radio as obsolete. Radios have been replaced with ipods and families rarely talk to each other much listen to anything together.
     I believe that the family life that existed in the past especially in black families shaped them into a strong unit. With all of the distractions we have today, we may not communicate with our families like they would have in the past. I feel that a challenge to us all would be to step away from the computer, phone, tv, or whatever else keeps us from getting to know each other, and rebuild the sense of community in the black family and beyond. Once we become a strong unit like before, we will be able to  go into the world and be effective like the civil right activists that braved the path before us.

-Sequoia Boone

Welfare and the Single Parent Woman

Black and on Welfare: What You Don't Know About Single-Parent Women by Sandra Golden


Sandra Golden was a member of the welfare system and pursued more than just a temporary check. Motivated by her family, Sandra advance in the welfare system to earn two masters degrees. Being a victim of the welfare system she was influenced to effectively evaluate the welfare system by examining single parent women on welfare. Although welfare is designed to help the people get to better places in life for their families by providing job training, there lies so many stereotypes within the system that strays it away from fulfilling it purpose. The women in Sandra study all had the same feelings about the welfare system, especially the case workers. Each woman felt disrespect because of the education level and never recognized for their other literacy’s. As Golden states in her piece more focus should be placed on the individual that is on welfare and be placed into jobs and programs that can give them progression in their life and sense of self worth. Many people stereotype the welfare system as those simply taking advantage and being lazy which causes discomfort for those who actually need the help and who are trying. Because of their lack of education, their social literacy’s are never recognized. Many of these women are leaders in their community and home. The ability to manage a household, budget and articulate well with others like their children’s teachers are other forms of literacy not recognized by the welfare system. If more time was put into the individuals, they could be more affectively placed into the proper programs applicable to them. Reform to the welfare system is needed. Most importantly the reform should come from within the people not concentrating on their weaknesses and not their strengths. An improvement on the individuals’ academic skills is mandatory. Targeting employers like hospitals, college and universities, banks, insurance companies, or programs that will help with furthering education and a career. If a system is corrupt and discouraging, those who are forced to be within the system will be discouraged. Especially for African American women, our self worth and self esteem in the work force should be re-evaluated.

-Courtney Sykes

Where are the Role Models?

In Unearthing Hidden Literacy, Smith told the roles and places of elders in our society during the cotton-picking days, “The elders helped everyone with tasks, shared stories, and encouraged others to deal with whatever problems life presented. The elders also took responsibility for teaching the youngsters, making sure we stayed safe, keeping us out of trouble, and sharing with us.” These elders could be looked at as friends, teachers, and positive role models, but where are these elders today? With an estimated 510,000 children in foster care and 44% of the illiterate population as black women, how are we going to get out of the current situation we are in? Who is going to give the leading hand we need or advice to keep us on track? In the cotton fields, we had people to keep us going with encouraging words but, we need to have someone now to tell us that we need to make a change. We need more people to volunteer in after school programs or mentor children with incarcerated parents. Our black children need help. It is our responsibility to make sure that by the time they become adults they have the skills needed to succeed in the world. If we want to change the startling number of children in foster care system, and make sure our woman are literate, we have to begin with or children.

-Courtney Stewart

Black women on Welfare = Undetermined and Undereducated??

Black and on Welfare was a very informative story about the true struggles of being on welfare and how unfair the system is. It was told from the perspective of Sandra GOlden, a woman who had 2 years of schooling and 2 years of experience but happened to get pregnant. Being on welfare is never part of the "plan" but in her case it was particularly unexpected. And her experience with the welfare system was not too bright. The SSC automatically assumed that she was undereducated, undetermined, and unskilled - when you have someone who is in charge of your money situation having little hope in you and your opportunities it doesnt exactly make the situation any better. From the experiecne she had she went on to do a case study with several Black single woman on welfare - and it was not only she that found the welfare system slightly inadequate in the support department. Yes they give you jobs and money BUT do they offer you any support? ANy glimmer of hope that you might make it out? Not really.

I empathisized for these woman. Being a single black woman trying to make better for your child is hard enough without having someone else trying to look down on you. I strongly agree with Golden's point of the need for assesment test for jobs and the backwards idea of trying to work first then get educated. I go to school for 13 years before ever getting any kind of substanstial job, so why on the welfare system would they do it backward. SHouldn't they give them some opportunity to get their GED or something to that extent so that they can better themseleves.

The welfare systme doesn't need to be so undermining, they are there to help- so really helping is what they should do. Not this " help" where they don't believe in you and give you jobs that you just might be over qualified for..

-Jheanelle Miller

Hustle and Bustle

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.
                                                                                                                -Maya Angelou (1993)

Everyday, when we wake up, we never know what is going to happen.  As women, we are faced with many challenges.  With the responsibility of being a wife, comes along being a great mother.  However, just because a woman is a wife does not mean it makes it easier for her to be a mother.  We are expected to not only be the nurturing, secure, happy part of the family, we are told to be strong and understanding.

Being a young mother is very difficult when one is without a job and a stable family.  It is even harder when you are African-American.  We are faced with too many stereotypes: black, female, pregnant, young, and illiterate.  ILLITERATE.  Does this really make us illiterate?  Just because I am in a certain situation, does not mean I put myself there.

My mother was a young mother.  She had me at twenty as well.  But, she was literate, and she never let anything discourage her from making it to the top.

Maya Angelou spoke of this woman, a woman full of life, able to do anything she wanted to.  She can be a mother and a worker at the same time.  She is intelligent and literate socially and intellectually.  She is in a situation, nonetheless, she can handle that situation.  Therefore, she is not "broke".  She is the ultimate hustler.  She can be mom and dad.  She takes responsibility for her actions and she takes care of business.

Remember this: Many women do it everyday, so you can too.  Welfare can be given by the government, Life is only given by God.  Celebrate his victory and yours.

-Keiwana Glover

What kind of image are we selling

In the book “The Readers Quilt”, chapter 12 refers to the movie “Clara’s Heart”. In this movie Whoopi Goldberg plays as a Jamaican woman who serves a white woman. Clara creates an attachment with the family making a strong bond with the white woman’s son. She teaches the boy songs and tells him stories that they use to tell in the island. Later in the movie, Clara has stacks of returned mail. That scene gives the audience the assumption image that she is illiterate.

There have been many times where I have been asked to play the ghetto role or the illiterate African American in a script. My mom always told me never to settle for those roles and I did. I settled for such a role when I played Tituba in a school play called the "Crucible". I belittled the whole thought of how black people are being used in the movie business. It wasn't until Hallie berry was awarded a Grammy for the movie monster ball, where she played a single African American mom, desperately looking for attention. In the movie she was on drugs, stayed in the projects and didn't want to get her life together because she was still waiting on her husband or boyfriend to get out of jail. In this film you can tell that the movie producer is being very stereotypical. The movie production only puts the negative things that black people do in movies. What they are not seeing is the successful black people that own their own businesses, who work in a corporate office, who are doctors, lawyers, engineers. Why can’t African Americans play one of those roles?

Why do African Americans continue to play a negative role in movies when they are aware of the negativity it portrays on our black race? Is it for the money? It seems like nobody cares what role they take, just as long as they have the spot light or just be seen in a movie. I don’t think that African American actors understand that they are selling an image of negativity. It’s like the black mentality is all about getting money and being rich. When you join the movie business it’s all about what the producers wants.

I am glad some of the women today have realized what the movie production is doing. Some African American women have came to a point that they will no longer play a role that degrades black women or the black race in general. The world makes it hard enough on women as it is, but who will be the real women? Who will take a stand against the negative image the movie production has put on our race? Who is the real woman?

- J’Nae Smith

It's About More Than Money By Sequoia Boone

"Younger students could possibly say that they wanted to 'be' Halle Berry because she gets paid to "act illiterate" (i.e look like a drug addict, struggle to read a children's book, and "make nice" with the White social worker who has won her young child's heart)."

I am sure that Halle Berry isn't the only envied actress. She has played many roles, most of which she plays a stereotypical role of a woman. In Loosing Isaiah, she plays a drug addicted mother who fights for her child. Although some people who watch movies feel that these characters are fictional and they should be ignored because no one takes them serious. I would like to believe that every movie character stems from an experience and that somewhere a person who has never interacted with a black woman might take this movie to represent the majority of black women. By aspiring to play roles in a society that degrades women and limits their literacy, we are adding to the problem. Many argue that "if it makes me money, who cares?" Because young children look up to these stars, they believe that these roles are acceptable. by aspiring to play these roles in the future, they are falling into a cycle that perpetuates the black woman as someone who is incapable of being able to fulfill another role in films.
     Money isn't everything, however it can persuade people to sell their dignity to people who probably make twice their salaries. Young people in particular think that money is the answer to everything. It is money that will make the very people who produced the movie convey you in a light that is not true. Young people don't realize the effect of their actions and might be wiling to do almost anything for money. We know that it isn't only children who are easily persuaded with money. There are countless amounts of women who dance in videos or chase men on television in hopes of becoming the next big star. They represent the black women who cannot see in any color other than green. They wish to show society that although they do things for money that are degrading, it doesn't matter because of the pay they are receiving. We, the next generation, must step up and say that there are certain roles that we are not willing to portray for money. These young people probably also don't understand the history of these roles. In the early days of the Black Actress, these were the only available roles. Now there are many possibilities for women in the industry. They may not be as plentiful as other degrading roles, but actresses must stand and say that they aren't willing to play these roles because they degrade black women as a whole.

Expressing a Women's Opinion

“I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female.” -Queen Latifah

It is a shame that women have to be put through discrimination. In the book Traces of a Stream, chapter four Going Against the Grain talks about the history of African American and African American women. Going back to the 18thcentury women had to acquire literacy within an environment of activism, advocacy and action. Literacy was a tool women used to mediate and manage the critical process of change. Women were given the roles of being a griot or someone who told stories about history using a language to instruct their listeners. They constructed meaning through accessible symbols, images and thought patterns. It was said by Jacquelyn Mitchell (1988) that she suggest “African American women had to “read”, name, then “paint” the world so that others could see it, understand it’s truths and consequences.” She was implying that African American women needed to express their selves through words, readings and paintings to tell the world about the African American history. After the emancipation of African Americans, African American women were learning and dispersing literacy to their young ones but whites still tried to find ways to end the liberation of the African Americans oppression. Further down the line of history gender started to conflict with the opportunities of getting an education. Looking back on how far we have come today with literacy we should be grateful that we didn’t have to go through racism. Not saying that racism is completely obsolete, but the fact that we can be unified when we go to school is a big step from what life was like in the early 1900’s. Trying to change the role of a gender is the problem we are facing today. In this chapter a women by the name of Maria Stewart was a women of lower class that had the desire to speak so she could express her opinions but back in her time it wasn’t a women’s place to do so. If we look at our world today, a woman’s opinion is still not valued as much as a man's opinion on a subject. Our world has put women into a category of only being capable of doing maternal things when women can do so much more.

-J'Nae Smith

"I Need A Tip Drill" by Brianna Holmes

The article, "She Was Working Like Fo Real" by Elaine Richardson analyzes one of the biggest controversies in the African-American community - rap music and videos. The main problem is that today's music contains a lot of lyrics that portray Black women in a negative way. Women have been fighting for years to have men show more respect in their lyrics and videos, and even though we have come a long way, we still have far to go.

In my opinion, i think this fight is focused on the wrong group of people. While men do play a major role in the exploitation of these women, I do not think it is entirely their fault. It is their fault that they have the most disrespectful lyrics and that needs to change, but it is not their fault that there are these women that choose to disrespect themselves. In these videos, there are no men holding a gun to these women saying they must dance around half-naked or degrade themselves, they choose to. We never really know the woman's situation, she might need the money or have low self-esteem or maybe she just does not care, all of those reasons are the real major problems, not the men.

I think in order to fight back against this degrading pop culture is to start with these women. If the women would stop performing in these videos I think there would be a chain reaction that would show up in the music. These rappers would have to change their lyrics to fit the video, unless they wanted to write a song about big booty women, but have a music video full of men doing nothing. If we uplift and empower these Black women, which will be hard because they are already grown, it may slow down and eventually end the production of this degrading music.

Despite Oppression

Literacy and History are effectively woven together in Going Against the Grain: The Acquisition and Use of Literacy. This passage discusses they ways in African Americans have obtained literacy with a focus on African American Women. African American women have always been centralized in the community; they continue to uplift the race despite the constant oppression. They have found strength regardless of being beaten down. Essentially African American women are the conscious of their communities. They have always been visionaries and some of their stories are told throughout this passage. Women like Frances Ellen Harper and Terry Prince have made an impact on the lives of African Americans through their activism. Literacy has been a vital cause in the oppression that has been placed on the African American community. The means to obtain literacy was not easy to come by. Most slave holders, along with other white Americans opposed the idea of African Americans gaining literacy. In the beginning of the 19th century, during many revolutions, whites did not want slaves to gain literacy due to the fear of uprisings. The image of African Americans during the slave era was tainted to African Americans being seen as mere property, which was used as justification of treating Blacks like animals. African American women like Miss Deveaus, Miss L, and Millia Granson produced literacy opportunities for their community. African American women continued to demonstrate their endless strength when some started their own private schools through the visions like that of Catherine William Ferguson. African American women have constantly demonstrated their commitment to the empowerment of their communities along with their unconscious will to uplift their communities.


-Janella Thomas

Going Against the Grain

The historical view in which women's literacy is shaped throughout this passage provides readers the foundation to understanding the literacy of African American women. One must be able to understand the history and social changes of the African American culture in order to comprehend the meaning in the writings of African American women and how these writings and literacies as a whole have transformed. The very beginning of African American women's history was to define themselves as human beings and have the opportunity for literacy and learning. Being that the African Americacn race was in an oppressed state, women aquired their literacy through activism and action. "African American women's literacy is a story of visionaries" meaning that because of the lifestyles they were subjected to living, their writings were more imaginative, inspirational, and a way for them to escape reality. The passage describes African American women as the center of the economic status in African socities by being the breeders during slavery. African American women can in this sense be defined as the central meaning to literacy. They were the mothers and nurturers of literacy in their communities.You must incorporate who these women are, their characters, their lifestyles, upbrings, and situtaions in order to understand their literacy. These women carried a legacy of being healers, supporters, and sense of responsibility to their communities. This shaped the way in which women would acquire their literacy. Expression became their main tool. They knew literacy was their way to incorporate themselves into society. However, their story of aquiring literacy is more of a struggle as activist for justice, empowerment, and change. I appreciate how the author incorparated small facts of women's literacy especially during the time of slavery. For example, the story of Lucy Terry, the first enslaved women of African descent to write a poem. These facts provided me with more appreciation for African American culture and an understanting of our history, especially that of black women. 

-Courtney Sykes

Going against the Grain.

"On the first point, whatever African American women wanted to do with literacy would at the very essence be perceived by hegemonic structures as going against the grain" - J.Royster
 In the olden days women were seen as inferior especially black women, this quote embodies the obstacles African American women had to go through to become literate. Black women have always been seen as being at the bottom of the totem pole, simply because they had more to overcome. Roysters' passage talks about all that the black woman has gone through to gain literacy and the right to be literate and considered as equals throughout the years. For a very long time african americans weren't allowed to learn how to read and write and when they did learn in particular during slavery they had to do so secretively. This passage discusses all that black women went through the gain the right to be literate and public about their literacy. I particularly enjoy when they begin talking about Maria Stewart. I mainly enjoyed her story of how she tried to voice her opinion and for a while it was a little bit of a problem, because that wasn't a "women's place". Despite the fact that she had been cheated out of her inheritance, her speaking out against was unacceptable. I am glad we have progressed in out views of black women and their literacy because if we had kept that idea around we would have many of the great black women we know and love today. As mentioned in the passage "Stewart contextualizes her behavior within the historical fabric of women's lives over time, demonstrating that she is neither the first nor the only one, and that she should not me the last." There is still change to be made, and if black women want to progress on we have to have the mindset that Stewart had, we are not the first and we should not be the last.
-Jheanelle Miller

Shape Your Path Towards Literacy

To Be Black, Female and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation by Leonie C. R. Smith

"My education whatever shape it took would be a life-process and would become a tool with which I could do the necesary activist work in my community" Leonie Smith

Leonie Smith, deriving from a family with little education made it a life long goal to become educated. Being a black woman from Antigua and then travelling to the United States forced her to face the struggles of forming a literacy as a black American women, yet she did not get discouraged. Instead she worked hard to get to the point in her life were she felt her literacy was satisfactory to herself and at the potential she knew she possessed. The quote above not only reflects her transition from one form of education to another, but her willingness to view education as a process that has no boundaries. Viewing literacy as a life-long process creates a continuing and growing literacy of black women. If we all begin to think as Smith did when things were rough we can all come out on top. Your literacy does not end when you learn to read and write. It never ends. As long as you continue to learn new things and advance your knowlegde, your literacy is ongoing. I feel it is very important that although we must continue learning and become more literate as black women, we must remember our community. History shows that black women's literacy was important to the community. Women such as Maya Angelou were inspirational, literate black women. The ability to influence another black women to become more literate through your own literacy is a benefit the community deserves.
                                                                                                             -Courtney Sykes

Reflection on Literacy and Black Women

Strong Black women

Our African decedents went through hard work, dedication, sweat and tears just so african americans today could use literacy to make a differeence. Today, African Americans are not considering the fact that being literate is a privilege. There are people in different countries who do not have the privilege to be literate because of their country's poverty. African Americans have always tried to have higher standards than the whites but yet discrimination seems to limit what jobs we can and cannot have. Being a woman in general is hard in life. It's like society set limits for womans capablites because you don't see too many women engineeers or docotors.Women can do just as much as man can in the work field.We need to encourage African American youth to stay in school and help veer them into being successful in life.

By: J'Nae Smith

Not Innocent Until Proven Guilty

“To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation” by Leonie C.R. Smith

 

“It seemed that a grade of D was what was expected of Black students, and anything above that was suspect.”-Leonie C.R. Smith
After a few minutes of reflection in class, surrounding the topic of the quote, I felt compelled to blog about. We have two strikes against, we are black and we are women. I more than tempted to say there is a third strike….we are educated. See it seems a black woman should not expect to better herself outside of the kitchen. Many think it impossible for us to possess the ability to learn, let alone ascertain an education. There are so few black students and successful black students at that, in the whole grand scheme of the world. We know from previous readings in Readers of the Quilt, that black women compose 44% of the illiterate population. Yet when the small number of us strive to do better and commit ourselves to hire knowledge, we are met with criticisms and accusations about how we obtained our success. Smith discusses the immense racism that she unfortunately encounters in college. She was previously doing poorly in a class and chose to get help, as she rejected the idea of failure. Yet when she started to do well in the class, the professor accused her of cheating. Is it really so difficult to believe that a black woman can achieve anything she puts her mind too? Ignorant individuals such as Smith’s teacher only serve as motivation to me. We are all intelligent, scholarly women and I am sure each of you values academic integrity just as much as I do. We have nothing to prove to people like Smith’s teacher. We only need to stay truthful to ourselves and the journeys we embark upon. During a brief class discussion, I was amazed at the number of students who shared stories about teachers accusing them of cheating because of a “grade turn around.”

Another point I must touch on, as so many are intriguing, was that her teacher told her she should be fortunate and ever so thankful that she was accepted to Hamilton College. We each have our different motivations for the colleges we choose and why we all subsequently chose Spelman.

For me, I know that Spelman is a place to experience education like I never had before. For a teacher in any subject to relate how a black woman was affected, amazes me. However, the golden key was knowing that I was not accepted to Spelman College to meet a quota, rather I was chosen based on my academic ability. It is a great feeling knowing that I do not have to question why I was accepted. Nonetheless, Smith was a brave soul to stay in a place where she encountered so much hatred. One cannot help but to admire her strength and ability to persevere.

I hope that despite all those that discourage us, we continue to persevere. Those teachers will not be the last to accuse you or someone you know of something you did not do. However, stand strong with your integrity and head held high. For one day, we will be just as proud as Leonie C.R. Smith in our accomplishments.

Blessings to the future doctors, lawyers, educators, engineers and pioneers that I am fortunate enough to sit in a room with everyday.



-Britney-Myshante Howard

Limitless

Leonie C. R. Smith begins To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation with this quote:


"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."


I related to Smith in many ways, but this quote describes my feelings towards my life and literacy the most.  As a child, my family realized my potential and always encouraged me to learn all that I could.  I had big dreams and they KNEW I could achieve them.  Even when I was three, my family TOLD me I could achieve my dream of being a doctor.

Leonie Smith described her life by "Schooling was always easy, it was life that was hard, and my life seemed to be one struggle after another."  Even after all of the trials and tribulations, Smith made sure she persevered in school.  She never let her personal life affect her intellectual life negatively.  She used the damaging things going on around her as critical motivation in her studies.  I believe all Spelman women have this motivation.  We learned the tradition of the African American women before us and we realized how important it is to be strong on the outside and inside.  We are very privileged women with support of people all over the world telling us that we can achieve anything.  

There are NO limitations on the things we can achieve. We must utilize the tools we have and learn all that we can because many African American women were not allowed to learn at all.

"Have enough faith to make your dreams reality."- My Mother, Tiffany Glover

-Keiwana Glover

Starting with the Youth: Rising From 44%

"We cannot afford to settle for being just average; we must learn as much as we can to be the best we can. The key word is education-that's knowledge-education with maximum effort."

-Bill Cosby

Recognizing that black women today make up 44% of the illiterate population, it is time to make a stand starting with our youth. But before we can try to figure out a solution, we must find out the problem. Is it the media's portrayal of Black females?  Students’ dedication or motivation?  The lack of support from parents or other figures in their community? Or is it the need for “quick” money? At an early age, black children are exposed to music videos and other destructive images that can affect the way they view themselves. Continuously seeing sisters parading about and gyrating on the television does not give them the motivation to get an education. What we need to do is regulate what our children, younger sisters, and nieces watch on the television because there is nothing to gain but much to lose. Another problem for girls in the black community is the fact that they have no figures in the community to look up to. What we need are more volunteers for after school programs to provide role models and mentoring to girls who need help in school. We need more programs to empower young black females so they can resist being another addition to the 44%. This is the time for us to overcome the different, degrading stereotypes that surround us as black women; the first thing to fix is our literacy and the way we interact with society, the first place to start is with our youth.

                                                                       ~Courtney Stewart
 

"We Can't Teach What We Don't Know" by Brianna Holmes

The conversation between Christina McVay and Joanne Kilgour  Dowdy is a very interesting one that raises many questions about teachers that have to teach classes where the students ethnic background is vastly different from theirs.

Throughout high school I took mostly honors or AP classes, which were classes with more white students than any other race. I always felt that as much as my teachers tried to get everyone involved and to actively participate, I always felt that the teachers connected more with students of their own race, and that those students got more out of the class than I did.

It’s not necessarily the teachers fault that we never really connected, but it’s of a systematical error. Like McVay said, not everyone feels comfortable with everyone and it’s very hard to teach what you do not know. Even though McVay is fascinated with Black literature and Language, she still does not know everything about the Black culture and she learns something new everyday from her students. That is a very important factor in teaching. Teachers must learn from their students so that they can structure their lessons to their students and that will help the classroom have a better bond and more comfortable learning environment.

What I like about McVay is that she makes her students comfortable by telling them that their so called “bad language” and I believe it is important for our community to know there is a time and a place for our language and to realize that it is OUR unique language, not a ghetto or uneducated language. It is teachers like her that make learning fun and beneficial because both parties are getting something out of it.

"My" Language vs "Your" Language

Christina McVay clearly speaks of the different terms and "languages" of people, especially "Black language." As my colleague, Sequoia Boone rightly says "by allowing students to incorporate “Black language” into a formal English class, McVay taps into their inner being and pulls from that to mold them into writers and speakers that society recognizes."  After reading Sequoia's blog, I thought about one major aspect of language, our inner voice.


Each person has a voice when speaking and when writing.  In the Black community, so many factors play a role in your voice.  When I was in middle and high school I learned about the Harlem Renaissance.  I felt many connections to poets, such as Langston Hughes, and this connection could only be made within "our" community.  I mean, anybody can read his poems, but it is something special about the way "we" say things.  We, as African Americans, tend to speak with a voice of our time yet so strongly connected to our ancestors.  We have a weep, a longing, a since of pride to the way we speak and what we mean.


However, coming to Spelman, "we" realize that there are so many different ways to say the same things.  Over a thousand Black women, and not one of us have the same voice or say the same exact thing all the time.  Moreover, some of us do speak alike depending on where we are from, but "my" language could be more vivid than "your" language.

"My" language is not the same as Oprah Winfrey.  She is role model that has a "voice" when it comes to speaking and writing. Thankfully, "we" go to school to learn to communicate and still maintain our own identity.  Therefore, "my" language or voice shines in my writing, while Oprah's language shines throughout her writing.  We all come together with certain rules and standards to form "our" language.


-Keiwana Glover

Bad Language???

"Black students have been told by teachers, by the whole school system, frequently by their parents, that Black English is bad, improper."

Dialect is what makes cultures unique. Coming to Spelman I have begun to communicate with people from all over the world. Although we all speak English, we have various ways of saying the same thing. It was interesting to hear the different terms used by different groups of people. But was one group right as opposed to the other? Why couldn't we all be right? Why is there only one way to say something?" The truth is…there's not. Christina McVay makes this clear to us. Although slang terms may not be accepted in the formal world of academia, it is a mode of communication. It is our society that feels the constant need to label something as good or bad instead of it simply being different. People automatically associate difference with negativity. Maybe it's because people do not know how to interact with the unfamiliar.

McVay, I feel, makes an effort to meet the students where they are instead of putting down everything they stand for. By constantly having negative regards for Black language, some students are dissuaded from the English language as a whole because they feel inferior. By allowing students to incorporate “Black language” into a formal English class, McVay taps into their inner being and pulls from that to mold them into writers and speakers that society recognizes. By crafting their language, she not only improves their skills, but allows them to feel adequate at the same time.
-Sequoia Boone

A New Black Woman

For Black women to make up 44% of all illiterate women is very disturbing. Constantly we see negative images of Black women in the media and are fed stereotypes of what Black women should be like. Loud, "ghetto", "hood", and "that B---h" (if you would), have all been names given to Black women, by Black women. And to think most of the women who say these things are barely able to make it on their own. Also these women have fallen victim to a cycle that started long before them. How did we come to this point?

     Traditionally, the Black woman is seen as a strong person who holds her family together and takes care of those around her. She is viewed as the one who will be there for her family and children no matter what. Although being a caretaker, the Black woman must sometimes learn to take care of her own needs first. A woman cannot help her family if she does not help herself. To many Black women, their children come first. Although there is nothing wrong with that, our society has begun to create a new breed of the Black woman that considers children before she is really old enough to have this concern. She is the teenage mother.
     The media also capitalizes on this epidemic by creating shows such as "16 and pregnant" as if this is a declaration of womanhood, or a badge of honor. In 2004 Fantasia Barrino released the song "Baby Mama" where she promotes the lifestyle of being an unmarried mother struggling to make ends meet. For many it seems that this is the life that is easiest because, after all, a woman's main purpose is to bear children isn't it?
     It is time for the Black woman to step beyond the veil of simply bearing and raising children. She must learn to be literate in order to ensure that her children are able to make it in this world when she is no longer here. Women must not continue to embody the "sex role stereotyping" (Dowdy 5) that is mentioned in the book. Women can be more than mothers and caretakers. While that is still a role that must be fulfilled, we must want more for ourselves that to become someone's "baby mama."That is the amazing thing about women. We can serve in more than one capacity. By rising above the 44% of us who are incapable of being considered literate, we can pull them up with us.
     In order to move beyond the 44% we must not continue to focus on negative images of Black women portrayed in the media. We must begin to make our own definition for the Black woman that includes her as a first class citizen of the free world. We must look at media images such as Clair Huxtable who was a mother as well as a lawyer. She was able to balance a household while working everyday. Even the enslaved women were able to rise early to learn basic skills before completing a full day's work. Black women today must prioritize and learn that it is only through education that they will be able to help others. Once we, as Black women realize our that we are more than a statistic, we will try more to protect ourselves against circumstances such as teenage pregnancy that hinder our growth and literacy.

-Sequoia Boone

What Does Being A Black Women Make You?

As a little girl, my mother always told me, "As a Black woman, you have to work twice as hard, to get half as far." Reading "Literacy and the Black Women" by Sharon M. Darling is an echo of what my mother has told me. Black women in the American society are treated as the lowest of the low. She heads the group of everything negative in our society, such as illiteracy, poverty, and unemployment. In this essay, the question is raised, "Did the Black woman not exist when the education of women was taking place?" and the answer is "physically, she did not." Throughout history, she is passed by and overlooked. The sad part is, no one ever stopped to recognize the power and infinite beauty that the Black woman holds. Through everything we have endured, us women are still able to stand strong and power through, much better than anyone else.

So back to my original question. What does being a Black woman make you? Responsible for everyone's problems but your own? Another negative statistic? In my opinion, I believe that being a Black woman makes you emotionally and mentally strong so that you can lovingly guide and nurture the Black race, with little recognition or praise. As Mary McLeod Bethune said, "The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood," and as Black women, we must learn to proudly carry and improve our race forward in this backwards society.

"Only a Black woman can say 'when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole race enters with me.'"- Anna Julia Cooper

- Brianna Holmes

"To be Black and female in this country is to bear the burden of racism, sexism, and classism."(Lerner 1972) Truer words have never been spoken. I am hardly 18 years old yet and I know these wordsto be true. For some reason being black or being a women is seen as a disavantage, so to speak, but to be both! My do you have some struggles against you. Black women have that double barrier to cross, and sometimes it is not the easiest thing in the world. Being literate has and will continue to give black women more power, so to speak. No one expects much of the black women and if she can become literate her possiblities are countless. However it is not good enough to just be functionally literate, to be literate you must have a deep knowledge of a topic. The deeper the knowledge the more well of she will be. Literacy, in anyone in general, has a direct correlation to the kind of job you have, how much money you make,etc. So yes i feel the Black Women does have to be particulary literate and very motivated to make it in this world. Not to say the world is out to get here but there are barriers that she has to get over, that unfortunately have to do with the way she was born and not the person she has become. I feel as a young black woman that literacy is the key to succes, it is pretty impossible to achieve the latter without the former.

Lit-er-a-cy

Many people do not appreciate the luxury of being able to go to school; let alone learn how to read and write. We have forgotten our grandparents, great-grand parents, and ancestors past and all of the brutality they endured so that we can be literate and successful just like the "white folk." There are so many things to say about the introduction in Readers of the Quilt." However, the definition of literacy seems to be a diverse collection of words. I went to dictionary.com and this is what I read.
lit⋅er⋅a⋅cy 

1.	the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write.

2.	possession of education: to question someone's literacy.

3.	a person's knowledge of a particular subject or field: to acquire computer literacy.

I developed one stimulating idea from these three definitions: each person's literacy is always developing. You can be literate (able to read and write) but when you can acquire knowledge in a certain field, you are furthering your education. Many people cannot read and write but do not have the resources or the "right situation" to be able to do so. Then, others are "literate" but do nothing with their education.


Being at Spelman College has taught me to be grateful and appreciate all of the things, not only my mother and father did for me, but the African-American leaders did so that I could go to college in path of becoming a doctor. It is hard for me to watch my peers do nothing with their education and continue their studies after high school. It is so many different things to learn. Therefore, my definition of literacy has changed over time as well. Just since my senior year journey leading me into the gates of Spelman College, I have realized that you can be literate and ignorant. The real challenge is to find your own literacy and use it to change the world. We as a Black community need each other. It is our duty to put our education to use because without it, we will not make it far. In fact, statistically, the percentage of slower learning students (illiterate) in Head Start is directly porportional to the amount of people who will end up in jail from their generation. Meaning, if that child is not literate he or she will end up in prison.

Break the cycle and stay beyond the bars. Prison is a restriction, success is a distinction.

-Keiwana Glover