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