Women and Literacy in Alice Walker's The Color Purple

This reading starts off talking about how women of the Diaspora have been using the oral culture for generations. "Before Black women were allowed to publish, they kept their stories alive through the act of storytelling" (137). Black women writers recorded their histories through their stories. The reading goes on to talk about how literature from writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, and Alice Walker mirrors the realities of being both Black and female. 

The reading also states that there are five basic types of feminism: liberal feminism, radical feminism, prostructural feminism, social feminism, and black feminism. Liberal feminists focus on the rights of individual women and work to transform traditional beliefs about femininity and masculinity and emphasize women's rights to create their own identity. Radical feminists argue that the roots of women's oppression lie in the biological differences between men and women. Prostructural feminists examine the ways language patterns produce notions of gender. Social feminists believe that race, social class, and gender oppression are interrelated consequences of a patriarchal, capitalist system. Black feminism, or womanism, defines African-American women's struggles as issues of race, social class, and gender and work to give voice to the experiences of Black women. (138)

In the middle of the reading, five major epistemological categories from which women view reality and themselves and draw conclusions about truth, knowledge, and authority were drawn from a case study of 135 women. The passage went on to show how Celie, from The Color Purple, transitioned through all five categories to find self-worth and joy. 

In the beginning of The Color Purple, Celie begins in the category of the silent woman. Silence is a position in which women experience themselves as voiceless and mindless (138). It represents a denial of self and a strong dependence on external authority. Women of silent knowledge do not view themselves as learners. After Celie progresses through the stage of being silent, she begins to rely on what people say and think. She looks for others to validate her self-worth. The women who rely on received knowledge quiet their own voices to listen to what others have to say. These women are confident in their ability to gather knowledge from others. Celie then becomes a subjective woman. Shug pushes Celie into a place loving herself. When Celie realizes her potential, she no longer looks to others for affirmation because she has recognized the authority with herself. Celie then moves into the scheme of reason. These types of women try to take charge of their lives in a planned manner. During this stage, Celie began questioning God on why her life had been filled with so much turmoil even though she had always been a good person. In the last stage, women desire to improve the quality of life not only for themselves, but also for others. In this scheme, Celie ultimately learns to survive alone and finally possesses the secret of joy. Alice Walker asserts that knowing one's place within a larger schema enables women to maximize their power, uncover their hidden talents, and discover the God inside. That, perhaps, is the greatest level of literacy---knowing that self is an essential part of all (145). 

Literate Black Women Peer Counselors

The essay, “Transformation College Literacy of Literate Black Women Peer Counselors,” started off with Robin Wisniewski’s definition of a literate black woman. “[Being a literate Black woman means] that I can speak and what I have to say will be hear because I know what I am talking about (69). She then goes on to tell readers of the importance of knowledge and education. Wisniewski planned to successfully create a peer counseling program for students with disabilities, from low-income families, and who were the first from their families to attend college. Her methods were not of the traditional note-taking method.

Robin realized she wanted to do this transformation when she herself began feeling change. “My transformative journey began with the awareness of my own expectation for change in myself” (71). She tells readers that her college literacy arose from knowledge and learning new things. She thought of it as freedom, as “liberation” (71).

She starts her story with two young Black women, Lauryn who came from an all black school, and Vania who came from an all white school. Both Lauryn and Vania thought of the program as less of a program, more of a family environment. As the students were being taught, they were also doing the teaching. In this program everyone learned from everyone. Robin tells us that those two women taught her the best method of liberating black women, and that is knowledge through family orientation. These women made the program more family-like and each student was based off of their personality, not their major or grade point average. Each student was tutored without being judged. Robin Wisniewski just wanted to educate young people. “Knowledge is power, so if you’re literate you can make your own way. It is freedom.”

Going Against the Grain 3

The last ten pages of this reading feature how opportunities for African Americans to gain literacy were available to both pre-Civil War era and post-Civil War era. African Americans helped themselves to literacy in provocative and creative ways, but after the Civil War they were energized to take supreme advantage of what had previously had been denied them. This energy was cycled in three ways: the Sabbath school movement; the missionary school movement; and the common or public school movement (153).

The Sabbath school movement was church-sponsored and community-run schools that provided basic literary instruction. It was run predominately by African Americans themselves and operated in the evenings and on weekends. The african American community itself was largely responsible for laying the fertile foundation for universal literacy in African American communities. The second effort toward literacy was the missionary school movement. During the Civil War, various northern community and church organizations intensified their "home" mission activities...These efforts became a primary mechanism for the advocacy of freedom, justice, and empowerment (153). The third effort, the common/public school movement, emerged in the early 1870s. Southern leaders rose to regain their authority by supporting the education of African Americans through the establishing of public schools. These southern leaders were aided by many industrial philanthropists, who sought to maintain the status qui and push industrial models of education and to discourage liberal arts education (155).

This section of the reading went on to tell how African Americans began starting schools of their own such as Spelman College and Morehouse College. Schools such as these came to because African American parents with the resources to take advantage of other options typically did not favor public schools. They did not want to subject their children to the abuse of white southerners or to a southern-designed system of "Black" education, which they knew to be inferior. They preferred private schools that were still being run by philanthropic support, with a significant percentage of that support coming from the freed men and women themselves (155). Such efforts were repeated across as a network of private schools was established that would ultimately form the core of what today is the collective of historically African American private colleges and universities. This network of public and private institutions continues today, at the beginning of the 21st century, having forged a remarkable historical record for education of African American people (156).

"You Ain't Black If You Ain't Seen It!"

This particular reading highlights the importance of black films and literacy. It demonstrates how black feature films portray black women and the role literacy plays in such. It uses "Passion Fish", "Eve's Bayou", "The Josephine Baker", "Losing Isaiah", "The Color Purple", and a few others to demostrate how the black woman is portrayed as either a struggle or a rise from struggle, and in these instances the films seldomly show the black female as a literate being.

 The women who played these roles were provided with lucrative jobs, however, they were subjected to the demeaning message of the producers. It is important to notice these sort of things because just like in other forms of media, movies are factors in influencing youth and how they portray black experiences. These black films imply that black women struggle in day to day life, and the women that play these roles get paid to diminish the view of the black community. I have never noticed the simplicity in slandering the black literacy in these movies until this particular essay. It has raised awareness as to how often and how easily it is for our own people to bring down a collective community. Music, the way black people act on televison, magazines, and movies can all either benefit or be detrimental to the image of black society and our literacies.

Going Against the Grain 2

This portion of Going Against the Grain emphasized the efforts of people all over in the education of black peoples. The author highlights the philanthropic efforts of Reverend Samuel Thomas, Elias Neau, Dr. Thomas Bray, Thaddeus Kosciuszco, Catherine Williams Ferguson, Ann Marie Becroft, and many more. The writer also traces efforts such as Port Royal Commission and different exerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation and President Abraham Lincoln which helped the black community gain literacy. Even when the slaves were under the bondage of  being "contraband", there were still notable efforts of the black slaves succesfully beginning to learn to read and write.

 

 I think it is important to highlight the amount of work that was put into the acquisition of black education, and to note the pride the black community had in seeking and attaining (what we see as) simple knowledge such as reading and writing. When we go back into the historical context of how we as a people struggled to gain the legal right to learn, it shows how ungrateful today's generations can be about free education. As i was reading my exerpt and noticing all of the trials and tribulations people of all different backgrounds and beliefs went through for the education of African-Americans it kind of irritated me to know that I know people who do not go to school because of laziness and lack of concern. It emphasizes the difference in how my generation thinks differently from past generations. It ultimately reminded me of the lack of "work ethic" my father always talks about. Seeing how past leaders literally fought and struggled for many years to even be able to look at a book and then seeing how my generation gets annoyed when we have to touch a book demonstrates the shift in morals between old and new.

Going Against the Grain

The relationship between African American women and the black community is embraced throughout the first few pages of “Going against the Grain.” Women were the backboned in their families and households. Black women became a crucial part of the community despite the struggle of being recognized they have faced. As African Americans were fighting for equal rights for all races, African American women were fighting for equal rights for all genders. Exploitation for America arose when Thomas Jefferson contradicts his “all men are equal” statement by saying blacks should have rights, but not any that are equal to whites. But the real issue was that "all men are equal" left out women, despite everything women have done for their community.  

Women were used as producers, only being treated with respect if they were needed. These women found a way to prevail against all odds. “Each movement toward literacy was a signal that these women were going very much against the grain of prevailing cultural beliefs, practices, and expectations” (114).  

Reading how women were treated inspired me to be everything that they expected me not to be. I think here at Spelman, or at any all female college, we learn how to be respectable and dignified intellects with a mind of our own while maintaining our “pretty girl rock.” J 

Black Women/Black Literature

Reading "Black Women/Black Literature" was very uplifting as a black literate woman, but it also had its low points throughout the conversation. It felt good to find out that there are other ethnicities in the world that place value in the black language and culture. This reading was a interview between Christina McVay, a white teacher of Pan-African Literature among many other black literacy classes, and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. The interview mainly centered around how McVay became interested in black literature, how her classes have an effect on her students as well as herself, and how black women and black literature have influence her life both personally and academically. 

After being asked how she came to be involved with black women and literacy in the Pan-African Department, McVay answered by stating "...one of the communities that has the greatest oral dexterity is the Black community. I believe that comes from that long oral tradition from Africa right through slavery and Jim Crow in this country" (89). Reading this statement the first, I regarded it as a complement to black people, but when I reread it, I only saw it as a one-sided comment only complementing the African Americans that endured slavery and the racism of Jim Crow laws. It seemed as though McVay thought that the dexterity of the black community was only passed down from the older generation, and the younger generation only used the language that they learned from their parents or someone from earlier generations. But the reality is that black language is not only comprised of the oral traditions of the older generation, and would not get the attention for its diversity if it were not for contributions made by both the old and new generations. 

When asked how black women and black culture have influenced her life, McVay explained that she appreciates black literature because of the knowledge and morals and values that black women are able to provide throughout their stories. She went on to talk about how black literature helped to shape her belief system, and that it helped her more than going to Sunday school or church. Although I do believe that black literature includes knowledge and morals and values, I had trouble understanding how McVay believed that reading a book written by a black woman could or would equip her with the knowledge and values needed to make it through life. My take on black literature it that most black writers get their philosophies from the Bible or some type of spiritual teaching or experience anyways, so to put black literature above the Bible or any type of spiritual teaching does not make sense.