Voices of Our Foremothers

 As an adopted child, Sunny-Marie Birney never had a black mother figure present in her life. She was shown and given love by her Euro-American parents, but always had a piece of herself missing. She describes how she became attached to her black teachers and viewed them not only as a mentor but a figure she could look up to. It was than that she decided she wanted to become an educator and impact others as she was impacted. Black female teachers do not just teach their students and give them the minimal education and attention they need, but they honestly care for their students.

Black teachers make it an obligation to not just improve a child’s grade, but uplift them spiritually and mentally. Sunny-Marie Birney was astonished with the compassion and love she was given by her teachers. They filled in the missing puzzle piece that she was searching for her whole life. “Black teachers view mothering as a communal responsibility and an act of service. My teachers filled a void I had searched to fill all of my life (Birney 51).”This idea of going beyond your duties as a teacher and developing the whole child stems back to past educators.

Mary McLeod Bethune, Lucy Laney, and Emma Wilson were all educators that served the black community through their actions to education. There was a connection made between all three of the women, which were a womanist pedagogy.

A womanist pedagogy is made up of three elements which is, understanding that oppression is a continuous system, empowerment by an individual combined with help from others is the key for social transformation to change, and understanding the concept of humanism. All of these ideas are built on a foundation which consists of sisterhood, mentorship, and friendship. Components such as those build a person’s character and when given to a child, can really change their life. The impact that Sunny-Marie Birney received from her black teachers caused her to help and touch the lives of other children and adults who might have been in the same situation as she was.

As an educator, Sunny-Marie Birney formed her three concepts to teach and live by, liberation, individualization, and holistic education. She now instills the same values and compassion in her daughter that she was taught and continues to embody the womanist pedagogy.

Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African-American Female Growing Up in Rural Alabama

This selection is by the author Bessie House-Soremekun. "It examines the development of several forms of literacy in rural Alabama during the years immediately following the civil rights movement."The civil rights movement affected the lives of thousands during the late 1950's and was centered in Alabama. When the topic of the civil rights movement is brought up i get goosebumps, the numerous counts of injustice and suffering of those that came before me highly upsets me. I hate seeing the pictures and hearing the sad stories of the terrible things the white people did. The historical factors that were incorporated with the slave-ocracy caused a major gap in the literacy well after slavery ended. This major set back was mostly seen in the southern societies who still after slavery made it very difficult for African Americans to vote, become literate, or get a job. Another example of the set backs can be compared to that of the black and white televisions. This portrayal of the "black & white" image just emphasized the society and how it was at the time. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. said "Negroes have been intimidated and humiliated and oppressed because of the sheer fact that they were Negroes." This quote made me so inferior to the topic of the civil rights movement and the unfair treatment blossomed in response to slavery. Finally "changes" were being made, things like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the establishment of Affirmative Action started the chain effect for the equality of all citizens.

As House-Soremekun reflects on her childhood she remembers the strong emphasis on the learning professions and the importance of learning how to read and write. She was offered to skip a grade because of her strong academic work and ability to read. The offer was declined in spite of her mothers knowledge and how she thought it would be better for her to stay in her age group of peers. She then goes into detail about formal and informal literacy. Formal literacy is knowledge gained from educational modes and activities. Informal literacy consists of knowledge gained from family and storytelling. In addition to these literacies it is clear that our culture uses storytelling as its most trusted form of communication. I feel as though the knowledge of the different types of literacy help to determine what path you would like to endure in your journey to gaining your literacy. I enjoyed this passage and was very touched by the back round information and facts that were stated supporting the thesis of relationship among race, knowledge and power. African Americans have triumphed through so many difficult times. The idea of race and the "equality" of all people is still very controversial today. The racism, sexism and stereotypes fill the mass media, and somewhat "mirror" the same inequality that was seen during the civil rights movement just not as drastically.

Unearthing Hidden Literacy

Throughout the chapter, the author Lillie Gayle Smith, talks about her memories working in the cotton fields as a minor even though it was not in the 18^th and 19^th century. She valued lessons from cotton picking during her childhood. Her lessons in the cotton field taught her to “unearth” her true understanding of life, and how it is a privilege to stand where we are today. I feel like the overall message she gives in the chapter explains that there are literacies that can be taught better outside of the classroom.  She notes, “Unearthing memories of picking cotton and extrapolating lessons from the experience constitute two highlights of my graduate studies because the journey of discovery has led me to a deeper appreciation and understanding of past experiences and present perspectives (46).” She believes that although picking cotton represented a negative time in her life, she gained a sense of strength. This strength led her to understand the value of being a strong Black woman.

A majority of her essay discusses this class that she took entitled, “Black Women’s Literacy.” In this class, she felt comfortable in expanding her knowledge of the empowerment of Black Women’s literacy. She noted that in order to heighten Black women and their literacy, they must feel a sense of comfort and respect from their professors or teachers. Smith felt her professor “respected and validated knowledge acquired beyond the walls of the academy (38).” Because she felt respected from her professor, she enjoyed the class and learned more knowledge about uplifting Black women. 

As her essay progresses, she relates literacy to her experiences picking cotton. She notes that these experiences led her to possess a good education. Smith says, “.Because slave women were exploited, they developed greater independence and self-reliance than their nonslave counterparts (41).”She relates picking cotton to exploitation, thus she reveals her personal strengths. Smith talks about the values that she learned from her childhood. The money that she earned picking cotton was used to buy school supplies and clothing. She discussed how she would save this money and put it in a bank. She learned to appreciate the value of hard work and dedication. From this reading, I believe that literacy can be strongly related to experiences that are not connected to education.

Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats

The reliability of welfare or government aid is increasing rapidly year by year. What first started out at as a program to aid people who were making little to no income has become a dependency for some. In the black community welfare has become a lifestyle for many. The “socialist pimp” described by Star Parker is the reason why dependency is expanding to the younger generations. Relying on the government and others to fund their everyday needs is the only thing they know and it originates from their parents, who have imprinted their same mentality onto their children. African Americans in the United States today account for 13% of the population. The number of black households that are on the AFDC roll is 36.6%. That is an extremely high rate for a group of people who don’t even make up a fourth of the total population in the nation.  Now as women are more eager to work, instead of converting to the traditional, stay at home role many family values are nonexistent. Divorce rates are at an all time high and single women are left to raise their families. Fathers are actually encouraged to leave their families so that they can receive their welfare benefits from the government. Situations like those do not give our kids a great example of what they should strive and achieve in life.

Star Parker continues to go on about her dislike of affirmative action. She explains how affirmative action did open doors for blacks that were not available once before, but our people began to rely on affirmative action to get them somewhere in life.  This showed that the black race needed another form of government assistance for things we could do with some good, basic hard work.  Abortion was another topic discussed by Star Parker. She believed that the mistakes of others shouldn’t be pinned on innocent tax payers. She calls organizations such as Planned Parenthood “legal genocide” and continues to say, “It’s my opinion that they are making a huge profit from dead flesh and that is a crime against humanity (Parker 137).”

In many states such as California, it is legal for a school nurse to refer a pregnant girl to an abortion clinic without the parent’s consent. The roles of families have been stripped in our society today and if they do not have a say in such a matter as taking one’s life, than what is really their role and purpose of being parents. Star Parker thinks it would be more beneficial to take the money that is used to fund programs, such as Planned Parenthood into making a group home that teaches young women responsibility, values, job skills, and self image. Parker believes organizations like those would dramatically decrease the rate of abortions and teen pregnancies. Dependency on the government and welfare is going to take a while to get rid of, but with innovative ideas and education to others, I believe change can happen in the future.

Dysfunctional Literacies of Exclusion

Literacy and the World

Mandi Chikombero's novel is trying to convey the message that "different literacies have various implications for understanding Black women's struggle for acceptance and inclusion in male-dominated societies". She goes into defining literacy and discusses the types of literacy that are described in the chapter, traditional and colonial. Both of these types of literacy are the knowledge and practice of ideas, values, and attitudes of a specific society. Gender stratification is noted as contributing to race as an issue that further complicates the characters situation. Tambu believes that the colonial education will set her free. This is an example of how the literacy barrier in colonial times would be the cause of her trying to excel and strive for acceptance in society. In addition to the problems of the colonial era, social problems still exist in Zimbabwe today, such as some social inequalities that can be directly attributed to colonialism. Zimbabwe's colonial past has been the focus of many novels.

Colonial/modern/academic literacy is another main focus of interest in the novel.  The motivation through all types of literacy are similar all across the board. An example of this is the colonial mission to achieve Christianity, western civilization and commerce. As these components were constructed in the society of Zimbabwe Zambu was affected immensely. "Despite her educational success, Maiguru is unable to fully enjoy the benefits of her education she never gets to spend her hard earned salary. Tambu notes that [her] aunt never received her salary"(pg.101). This goes to show that the "colonization" of Zimbabwe caused much controversy especially towards it's citizens. Overall, this highly upset me because if this occurred in our society this would be declared unconstitutional and this could be taken to court. In Zimbabwe that clearly wasn't the case. I hope that in today's society this is not accepted and that legal action could be taken against those unconstitutional acts. The literacy that I can most relate to is the colonial type, in that I learned from those before me and because of their strong efforts to become literate the colonial way was the one which I can most relate to. I thank my ancestors for their triumphs and determination for uprising above what was "allowed" and broke the barrier of African Americans being literate.
 

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

In this novel “Black and on Welfare: What You Don’t Know About Single-Parent Women”, Sandra Golden starts her article off by first giving her own personal experience in the topic. She mentions the shocking experience that she encountered while seeking help from the County Department of Human Services. After her visit to the welfare office, she felt “dehumanized and humiliated.” due to the treatment of the caseworker, who automatically placed a stereotype on her as a black woman. “A black single-parent female utilizes special literacy skills to negotiate within a social context that marginalizes and disenfranchises groups based on gender, race, education and class. Many black females carry the assumption of being uneducated, unskilled, and unmotivated just because they receive public assistance. They make it seem as if they are lazy and do not have the desire to work on their own.

 Sandra Golden decided to gather a group of women in order to get their thoughts on the welfare system. It was clear to see that each woman had a negative comment to share. One participant stated “...SSC makes you feel stupid.” This is why literacy is so essential. Not everyone is able to obtain the common known literacy, but let’s not forget that other literacies exist. These literacies are not recognized by the welfare system. Most of the women that Sandra Golden talked with had other literacies that were ignored, such as literacies from home and community.

 

The welfare reform law of 1996 has some positive objectives; however, to meet those objectives and adequately serve clients, the welfare system must acknowledge and recognize the literacies of women who receive welfare benefits. Although caseworkers are overworked and have high case loads, they must be required to recognize and respect the people they serve. Furthermore, as job readiness and job placement programs are created to provide services for welfare-to-work clients, they need to implement a process that will enable them to learn about their clients’ needs, experiences, and skills and to implement programs that will meet individual client needs.

Literacy or Self Identity?

Black women have often struggled to be recognized and accepted into society. We have not always been allowed to have a voice so we kept our stories and struggles bundled inside. Before literacy was accepted for black women, storytelling was our reading and writing. We kept our history orally and many notable black writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Gloria Naylor used their power of literacy and created stories and books of a black woman’s struggle. In each of the books written by the authors, stories of struggle, abuse, acceptance, respect, and finding one’s identity is the popular topic. When focusing on the harsh reality of being black and literate, five types of feminism are used to describe the black woman’s struggle. Liberal, Radical, Poststructural, Social, and Black feminism are the different types of feminism. Liberal feminism focuses on the transformation of a woman finding her own identity and beliefs. Radical feminism is the idea that women’s oppressions stems from a male dominated world and the process of reclaiming and separating yourself from male control. Social feminism is the idea that racial and social class are the reasons for a capitalist system and Black feminism addresses African American women’s struggles as it relates to social, gender, and racial class. Black feminist often strive to give a voice and freedom to black women.

In the book, The Color Purple by Alice Walker we examine Celie's growth and inner thinking. Alice Walker exemplifies how both family and school can obstruct the growth of a woman. Celie recognizes the importance of being literate saying, “us know we got to be smart to git away (Walters 139).” Due to unfortunate circumstances Celie does not continue her education, forcing herself to rely on other things to find her identity. Celie uses silence to “stay alive”. See, silence symbolizes conformity, submissiveness, and denial. When you do not have literacy to back up the confidence in your voice, you fall victim to other people’s knowledge and you become silent, because you are unsure of your own voice. Often when someone does not contain literacy they believe in other’s truth, that’s why it is so important to have some form of self identity, or confidence when literacy is not existent. Celie eventually finds the confidence within herself through what other people tell her, but later does not need the acceptance of what others think to feel good about herself. This shows what the power of language can do. It can transform a voiceless, non-confident woman into a self aware, strong female. The Color Purple shows that formal literacy does make a person more knowledgeable, but doesn’t satisfy all the needs of a person. It questions whether self- awareness and knowing one’s place in the world is the true definition of literacy.

Happy Valentines Day

Valentines Day is a day where love and passion for another person is supposed to be shared. The history of Valentines Day however is not as "sweet" as you may think. The Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. You see the story of cupid and his love arrow wasn't always celebrated like it is today.

Back in 3rd century A.D. Romans were known for the days of February 13th - February 15th as being the most brutal and "bloody" times. Women would line up for men to hit them because they believe that this would make them fertile, also this celebration would include a matchmaking lottery. Emperor Claudis II executed to men named Valentine over the course of 3rd Century A.D. their deaths were condemned in the Catholic Church and they were honored with a day called St. Valentine's Day.

Nowadays everyone believes in cupid and his love arrow and all the mushy and gushy chocolates and flowers, but I bet you didn't know this loving and joyous holiday started out as, well, not so very glamorous.

Reel Women: Black Women and LIteracy in Feature Films

While reading this chapter of Black women and literacy in Feature Films, it was hard for me to truly relate to what she was saying because while watching films I never actually thought of the literacy level of black women that the film director was trying to portray. Although I have seen the majority of the films referred to by Dowdy, I never thought of how negatively black female literacy was being portrayed. Dowdy explores the roles and views of black women in nine feature films. All of these films are either starring Lynn Whitfield, Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Alfre Woodard or Whoopi Goldberg. All of the central black characters in the films are all facing a conflict and they don’t show the advancement of black women.  The women long after the film is over are viewed as uneducated and worthless to society. Three out of the nine films deal with addictions and although it juices the plot up the storylines portray black women in negative stereotypes. In the movies “Music from the Heart”, “Sarafina”, and “Wit”, the black women have a social status in terms of education. However, their opinions are always trumped by a higher power and they end up stuck in their harsh realities.

 It’s very true that a majority of films starring black women must show the black women being put down by some sort of higher power. In an industry where there aren’t many black women represented I think that there need to be more positive roles for black women. This excerpt has taught me a lot because now when I look at films I will not just watch it but I will look at the way the director is trying to portray certain types of people and cultures through the characters. This should encourage other readers to do the same because if they are not aware of certain images purposefully being displayed then stereotypes of genders, or ethnicity, will be formed.

Going Against the Grain 3

This section talks about how after the Civil War different movements formed in order to help African Americans become literate. According to Royster, “the symbolic and practical significance of literacy, after emancipation, going to school became a political act as well as a means of personal edification. Black people joined together to establish education systems and hire teachers for old and young alike, and their collective efforts represented both defiance to white authority and an expression of community self-interest” (pg123).  African Americans understood the implications of literacy and learning in political, economic, and social progress. They could see clearly from the extent to which they were denied access to it. That education could make a difference for individuals and for whole communities.

This is why African Americans were able to start Sabbath school, missionary school, and public school movements. People in Atlanta saw this as an opportunity for advancement and took it. They began to form public schools and private colleges like Spelman College. This was a great advancement for African Americans because education gave them a better opportunity to better jobs which meant better pay. 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. Some of them fought for their education and for their generations. They wanted to make a huge difference in the world, and began accomplishing great things at an early age, such as Charlotte Forten.

I really enjoyed this reading and it really gave me the true history of the development of school’s for Africans Americans. It has made me really appreciate the opportunities I have today and I thank all of the people who didn’t give up and continue to fight for not only are freedom but also education for us.