The Black Woman's Strength

 Literacy and education go hand in hand. What is important is that these two concepts are often deprived from black women, leaving them to struggle in society. Black women are generalized and categorized as the stereotypical inferior counterparts of society. Even in the historical perspective women of color faced difficulties in education, besides the long period where they were not taught how to read or write, when they had the legal right to society shut them off. Education was seen as a privalege and not needed for a woman because her ultimate goal was to give birth and raise children, those women who persued education were abnormalities for society. This mentality of inferiority in education has silently progressed into today's society. In this century, "25% of the world's population is illiterate. Women comprise 60% of this group, and Black women comprise 44% of all illiterate women," meaning that the majority of the illiterate population is comprised of black women (19). This fact emphasizes the severity of needing to educate our black women. All in all it is crucial that we uplift the stereotypical black women and not only educate her, but provide her with the resources to recieve a quality education. "Perhaps the black womanis tired, perhaps sha has given up, or perhaps neither is true. Hundreds of years after being brought to the United States, the Black women seems to be worse off than ever. There are glimmers of hope that she will overcome, but they are simply glimmers." The hope comes from the fact that "she continues to survive, and she survives the best she can given her circumstance. She continues to struggle because she believes in the promises for social equity" (23).

-How do you think it is that after all of this time it is still a struggle for the Black woman to educate herself?


-Do you believe that it is a societal hinderance or a mental one?


-Do you see illiteracy as a problem now like the essay emphasizes it to be?

To Protect and Serve

When I first began reading "To Protect and Serve" by Elaine Richardson I was only thinking of it as a assignment I needed to read for class, but by the time I finished the first page I was really interested and it became a reading that I wanted to read. The first page began telling about how black women and women in general are put into stereotypical categories by society because of past slavery experiences and the things that women are driven to do in order to "invent themselves against the distorted images of "money hungry heartless bitch," "Jezebel," and good ole "Mammy" among others many of which were created during slavery" (2).
                                                                                                
The first paragraph made me think about the double standard concept from ADW. The double standard is he train of thought that many people in today's society follow consisting of the belief  that a man can be ambitious or goal oriented of determined to make a better life for himself and his family, but if a woman has the same mindset she is "going against the grain" and is somehow trying to fill a man's shoes as if to say that a man is the only person that is supposed to embody those type of qualities. But at the same time, if a woman doesn't hold any of those qualities, and she only wants to be a housewife and her only job is staying at home and taking care of the house and the kids, she is then categorized as lazy or a "goldigger," or someone who doesn't want much out of life. This double standard poses as a lose-lose situation for women no matter what route they choose to take.

The article went on to talk about how "African American females' struggle included devising ways to protect and advance themselves and their families--to assert their humanity--against stereotypes and controlling images" (5). Richardson spoke on how African American females' are seen as nurturers and protectors of life in the social cultural construction of African American literacy. Although I do consider women to be nurturers, I disagree with the belief that they are also supposed to be protectors of life. I believe that it is the man's responsibility to be the protector. The article explains that "slavery hindered the Black man's ability to control his role" (4). I think that this explanation also explains why women are now viewed as the protectors. They feel like it is now their responsibility to take on the role of the woman and the man because men have lost a sense of the roles and duties that they are responsible for in life.

To Be Black, Female and Literate

To be literate in today's society is one thing, to be black, female and literate is another. In today's world literacy is crucial in everyday living. "To Be Black, Female, and Literate" by Leonie C. R. Smith takes readers on a journey throughout a young black girl's childhood and her relationship with education. She tells readers, "my education, whatever shape it took, would be a life long process and would become a tool with which I could do the necessary activist work in my community. (183)


Reading Smith's story opened my eyes to see how literacy affected me as a black woman. Smith tells us about her education throughtout middle school. She tells us about the limits women have in choosing a career. They were limited to being nurses, secretaries, or teachers. The author tells us how education and literacy was important to her and her parents, she also tells us how she was forced out of her regular homeroom into another class who was of lower caliber.


She goes on in telling how her move from Antigua to New York was mindblowing. "I had to learn what it meant to be Black in the United States." Although she was of color, she tells readers how Black American children made fun of the way she spoke and the dark pigment of her skin. Smith felt extreme isolation. The isolation and ridicule helped her gain focus on what was important, her education.


Her adulthood consisted of a number of black organizations that helped her through the racism she faced on a day to day basis. A number of us take literacy and education for granted. A large percentage of Black teens today are highschool drop outs. If we help each other see that education is in fact liberation, we can go on to achieve our goals one after the other, just as Leonie C. R. Smith did. "With my daughter at my side, I remain focused on the task at hand -- getting my PhD." (199)

Black Stories

The craft of stortytelling is an art which can be traced back to the earliest humans. Telling stories can inspire change or unity, it can provide a sense of humor or severity, tell tales of struggle or triumph or protest, or simply provide entertainment. All stories have a purpose, whether that is to inspire or entertain. "Storytelling" by Wanda Franklin and Joanne Dowdy analyzes the nature behind telling stories, emphasizing that "the purpose of a story is to describe how people make sense of the events of their lives, experiences, and actions," and stating that "every story that we tell or hear has a purpose and helps keep our lives knitted together" (122). 

 

While reading this passage I became aware of how many instances I have heard or told a story, I noticed the meanings behind the stories I heard and told, and I realized how often we as humans tell stories and how they impact and change opinions, views, and lives. As a child your parents tell you stories, to put you to sleep, to teach you a lesson, to entertain you, and these stories effectively generate a change in most cases.

-Think of the nursery rhyme "The Three Little Pigs", besides a suspensful story, to a child it teaches them to obey. What other nursery rhymes can you think of  and what lessons do they convey?
-Consider how much time you spend a day telling or hearing stories. How much of your life is spent in storytelling?

I also found interest in the way the authors analyzed how most stories past down (black stories in most cases) placed black women. "Women were ususally given supporting roles that included religion and were usually treated with respect" (129). This is interesting because although women were treated with "respect" in the art of storytelling the actual craft itself could be seen as "male dominance" because in Africa only storytellers were men.

                             

The main focus of  "Storytelling" is about the ways tellling stories impacts our lives as people and as black women, it especially focuses on how it is embedded in black people as a part of our culture and how it is used in life. "To acknowledge that stories and storytellers are ways of keeping African culture alive is a step toward better appreciation of the way that Black women are empowered by the form and content of stories" (134).