Sunday, September 27, 2009

" She Was Working Like Fo' Real" but, what is she working for?


In the article She Was Working Like Fo' Real  by Elaine Richardson, Richardson analysis how the media plays a role in the perception of Black/ African American females. Richardson believes that media feeds into such politics on gender, sexuality, and new racism.  Richardson goes on to say that the African Americans that feed such stereotypes come from improvished homes, lack formal education, lack of place of employment, have dysfunctional households and poor health conditions. These conditions derive from the times of slavery and colonialism. Hip-hop videos replicate acts of slavery. The video vixen alluding to wench or Jezbel, women who were sexually loose and manipulate. The modern day gangsta brotha equal to a brute who was good at impregnanting. Richardson interviews four African-American females and their interpretation of R & B rapper Nelly's St. Lunatics video Tip Drill. Richardson interviews 3 African American youth and they come to a concensus that the video is demeaning but, the strippers are just that strippers. Ultimately the blame is placed on the White, patriarchal sexists.
I agree that majority of degrading music is promoted by the White company executives. I feel that many of the women in the videos come from the inmprovished conditions that Richardson speaks of but, that is  no reason to do the things they do. Throughout this course we have read that Black women sometimes lack the voice to advocatee from themselves but, once they do their voice is heard. During NSO week I found out that Spelman protesteed Nelly's video also and their voice was heard because they banned him from the campus and also did not donate marrow to his sick sister. That is a fine example of  how if Black women advocate and stop feeding into the steereotypes promoted by the media their voice can be heard because besides the green thats what they are working for...a voice.

-Jacquelyn D. Patterson

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Being Thankful for the Struggle


After reading this article, any black woman would really consider how blessed we are. We should be really proud that our struggle for literacy isn't the one that it once was. Yes, we learned that there is still a considerable amount of illiterate black women in our society, but considering other cultures, the black women in the United States are privileged. We have black women working in hospitals, black women teaching in schools and universities, and there are even some women who are government officials! I think that our mothers who were leaders in helping us obtain our literacy (Catherine Ferguson, Anne Marie Becroft, Sarah Mapps Douglas, etc.) would be proud to see how far black women have come, and that their work was worth it. They would also be proud that some of their work is still serving its purpose (my parents went to Lucy C. Laney high school, which is still open today and helping black students to obtain their literacy). Also, I think it is important that as black women of today, we should remember what these women of our past have done to make this opportunity available to us(Spelman College for example). We should continue to be grateful and accept what has been offered to us because it didn't have to be this way. There are women who are being oppressed in their own homeland today by their own men. We as black women should get all of the knowledge that we can and succeed with it in return for the women who worked so hard for us to be able to do this; it's the least we could do!
                                                                                                                         -Chene' Greene

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Progress Through Literacy








Throughout the century, African American women have been on a never ending conquest for human rights, education, and literacy. Literacy is a tool; African American women, both past and current, have mastered this apparatus as a mechanism for survival. The most notable quote of the article was “The quest for literacy was a symbolic manifestation of their desire for agency and autonomy- as human beings who should have rights and privileges.” This explains many things: black women could only get their due recognition through educating themselves and families. Although they were not allowed to read or write during slavery, they were determined to teach and learn through stories, oral tradition, and wise sayings. Throughout history, black women have always understood the power of language and learning. This also explains the idea of black women as visionaries. Unlike the traditional patriarchal society of America, tribes in Africa were matriarchies. It was the woman’s responsible to communicate tradition, history, and writing to the families. This allowed for the continuance of that phenomenon once they reached America. In slavery, the women and men worked together in the fields, but the women made it their priority to stay up and read. They also had to push forward the images of mothers, sisters and daughters. They were not only stripped of education, but also of their womanhood. A powerful excerpt in the article written by Angela Davis explained that women were only treated as women when deemed appropriate for the slaves masters, i.e. breeding and sexual exploitation. That hit home because although slave masters are not relevant in our society today, black women as still treated as sex tools and valued mostly by their sexuality. Royster explains that “Black women were beaten but not broken”, the torment, pain, and constant adversities were not enough to keep black women down. The strength, determination, and courage displayed in women such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Ida B. Wells, should serve as exceptional examples for all black women. Overall, the article explained how black women used literacy acquired throughout the years to change generations. They developed the necessary tools in order to change the policies and law created to oppress them. Through “activism, advocacy, and actions”, they were able to pave the way for black women across the world today.









-Tiara Denson

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Literacy and its Importance


Leonie C.R. Smith once stated that, "My education whatever shape it took, would be a lifelong process and would become a tool with which I could do the necessary activist work in my community."


How often do we hear about a family whose mother and father did not stress the importance of education to their kids and in turn the children never worked hard to be successful academically? I'm sure many times, because that is typically how it works. If a child sees their parents not caring about their education and they are supposed to be their role models, why should they be so inclined to follow a different path? They shouldn't, but there always are those few exceptions of kids who see one thing from their parents and realize that that is not what they want for themselves, and strive for something better. In Smith’s story she grew up with education being her number one focus. Her grandmother was illiterate and her parents couldn’t finish their education, but she knew that she wanted better for herself. She worked hard in school in Antigua and later left her country and headed for the United States. She struggled when she arrived to the U.S., but she did not let that stop her. She worked harder than she had ever had to before, so that she could come out on top and have a success story that too many African Americans have. I believe that education should always come first because that is one of the few things that people cannot take away from you. As a minority we should look around at our people and decide if we like what we see. If we don’t and we shouldn’t we should change it, and make a new name for ourselves, so that we are not always thought as the ones who never finish what they start, or aren’t going to have any education higher than a high school diploma. We should come together and fight these stereotypes. As Smith said, “an education is a lifelong process” and it is, but it is one process that we should all have no matter what race, gender, socioeconomic class, or religion we are.

-Penelope Drumming

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Black Women and Black English


As Leonie C. R. Smith says, " Education, we are told, is the key that opens the imaginary door to success. Eucation, therefore, is supposed to uplift us from misery - to improve our economic situation in life. However, the path to acquiring an education advanced academic literacy is fraught with difficulty, and opening the door to success comes with a price."

For many genreations, African Americans, especially woman, have been told that the way we use language is called slang. Many African American women authors such as Zora Neal Hurston and Maya Angelou are best examples of keeping it real and telling it like it is in their books. They are not afraid to let people know how they feel and how it is. Words that we use, how we express ourselves through music and books is interpratated as slang. The way we express our culture and the way we see the world in our own words is different from everyone else. We keep it real and never sugar coat anything. With black women literacy and the connection to the reading, we can compare that our stories are very personal and that they have some type of meaning to it.

Instead of feeling that the "white man" is tearing us down, we should embrace the beauty of black english and not feel so bad about what we say and how we portay it. Our language at the end of the day is proper english because its black english.

- Manisha Gilliam

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

A Raised Hand in Darkness

In most schools you will find many books that tell how Americans were colonized, about conversion from one religion to another, our Founders this and our Founders that but, you seldomly see any books on African Americans. Do you ever wonder why? In thee excerpt Black Women/ Black Liteerature Joanne Kilgour Dowdy interviews Christina McVay, a whitee instructor who praises Black Language and thus teaches it as her career. McVay tells how at a young age she was introduced to Black Language.  Her interest derived from discovering that Black Language unlike proper English does not have rules but, flows with creativity and self expression. McVay goes on to pose the same question, when will Black Langauage be recognized? As a teacher of Pan African students McVay says it is the lack of motivation given to Black students. Much like educator Paulo Freire feels there is "pedagogy of the opressed" McVay shares the same ideology. McVay feels that teachers teach and never allow the students to reciprocate. I to share this thought with McVay, that if we are never prompted we can not raise our hands in the darkness, our voice can not be heard, we can not teach the teacher as they teach us.

-Jacquelyn D. Patterson

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

To be Literate: More than Just Reading and Writing in the Black Community?....

"Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I rise, I rise."
 - Maya Angelou.

Rising above the the normal stereotype as not being as literate as other cultures has always been a struggle for people in the African American community. But what does literacy really mean? It means the quality of state or being literate, where literate means one who can read and write. As we enter the 21st century, literacy has taken on many different meanings in this highly technological, global society. Many people have different interpretations of multiple intelligences to mutiple interpretaions of what it means to be literate as if you were to refer it to a literacy renaissance of some sort.
When I think of literacy among the African American community, I think of public and personal meanings of literacy. African Americans dtermine the functional significamce of literacy based on their successful negotiaton based on eduaction, economics, family envirinments, and social impacts on today's society. African Amercian literacy means that yes, you can read and write but, it also means that it has requisite for human existence and successful survival among other different cultures.  Liteacry is powerful among African Americans, it unifies us as a people, it separates us from other different backgrounds and cultures, and it liberates us to be more mindful and to know more about social and economic problems.

So looking on the Maya Angelou quote, as we rise above situations and setbacks that have come are way through generations and generations, we also bring the gifts and talents that our ancestors taught us which is to think outside the box and to expand the way we think and the way the world sees us.
- Manisha Gilliam

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

I Am Better Than The Ideas You Have of Me...

"Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives. The struggle for equality continues unabated and the woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory." -Maya Angelou



This quote from Maya Angelou I believe is an amazing quote because it encompasses everything many people feel that women should be, especially a black woman. I agree because I refuse to be a woman that just sits by waistside and allows things to just happen to her. I am not a woman who is passive and does not nor will not stand up for herself. I grew up in a single parent home; my mother raised my little brother and I by herself, and she never complained about it. I believe that she is the most amazing woman I have ever come by. She taught me that I did not need a man to be happy, and that I can do anything and everything as long as I put my mind to it. She taught me how to be tough and to hold my own and not let anyone walk over me, yet she showed me when to be vulnerable and let others in. She was a very serious person, but she knew how to laugh and be happy when I needed to relax. I refuse to be a stereotypical black woman who is thought to be illiterate and passive, but I will be the woman who comes out on top because I know that is something that I am capable of.

-Penelope Drumming

Is or Ain't I Heard?


"To be Black and a woman also means that you strive to resist the narrow limitations of traditional expectations..." (Dowdy 4)

Who am I? I am a young adolescent African American woman and furthermore , I am educated. I am a Black woman who in response to Dowdy's above quote is striving to "resist the narrow limitations of traditional expectations..". In the introduction of Reader's Quilt Dowdy expresses the limitations being placed on women's literacy. She discusses how women have been opressed since being brought here in the early 16th century. She alludes to great historical leaders like Soujouner Truth , Harriet Tubman, Phyllis Wheatley, Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clarke, Wilma Randolph, and Marian Anderson.She talks of how these women broke into the realm of literacy during a time when men treated them as inferior and there were class, race, and judicial laws keeping them from breaking through. Yet, they did it. I believe Dowdy is right when she saids that women have a place in life and that literacy is important. when I look back on my life, my parents began reading to me when I was a little girl. I was taught early that life is no crystal stair. I was taught that as a Blak women I was at a disavdantage. In society with the advancement of technology and job development it does appear Black women are being left behind. In the work field I've seen the struggle to not only go against white males but, Asians and Hispanics also. In education, I've seen other Black adolescent women feed into the statistics of dropping out of college and having children at an early age. Seeing these conditions around me make me strive to fight against these limitations like Dowdy charged us readers to, makes me proud to say I go to one of the nation's historically Black liberal arts college for women, and it makes me want my voice to be heard. I am and will be heard.
-Jacquelyn D. Patterson