Your Perspective

Lillie Smith reflects on her childhood in the cotton field in her acknowledgement of experiences that have shaped her life. Smith nostalgically reflects on the beauty she found in the hard work she had to do as a child. She looks back and realizes what it has taken to shape the way she views the world around her. I find it interesting how she comments on how black women look at education differently, often question the creditials of another black teacher. She also talks about how the black woman is marginailzed compared to the white woman, and how it effects self identity, whereas she found hers without the struggle of outside influence in the south. I found it to be true, we often as black women question the ability of another black person to educate them.

The author discusses the way she researched what influenced people's "knowing" and she mentions how she first hated working in the field, but now that she is older she attributes it to her working qualities now, effecting her perspectives of knowledge. In the cotton field is where she found the beginnings of herself and the initiation of the type of person that she would become. Her humble beginnings have given a deeper apprecition of  her past experiences and perspectives.