“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 enjoyed reading your blog. It was very well written, I concur with you in regards to Black Women knowing they must pass on everything they learned and acquired that was positive so that we could all someday prosper and overcome. If it was not for our ancestors and them knowing we would someday need to possess the skills they once lacked, we would not be in the position or at the stance we are now as highly educated and literate black women.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Sims