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