Making Lemons into Lemonade and changing Cotton to Cotton Candy

In the article, "Unearthing Hidden Literacies: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field", Smith shows us that there are other ways to obtain literacies outside of school. This topic was touched on in some of our class discussions as well. The difference with this article is the place that she obtained her literacy is one that black people are often ashamed of. Working in the cotton field is something that we often look down on because we feel like it symbolizes the slavery and oppression that our ancestors went through.


Smith's interpretation of the cotton field however is one that tells us that there should be no shame because everything that we usually learn in school...she learned there.

I feel like the black race should also look at what we view as negative pieces of our past, and turn them into positives ones, like Smith did in this article. Everything happens for a reason, so why not make it into a good one instead of one that always negative? Granted, everything that happened to blacks in the past, cannot always be looked at as something that could be turned around as positive (degradation of female slaves, abuse, etc.) but we shouldn't be pessimistic about the past anymore. For example, if blacks weren't brought into America, there would be no need for historically black institutions. So as a people, we should turn our cotton into cotton candy and feel assured that there is a reason why we are here, and why we experienced what we did. Personally, I feel like the trials and tribulations of the past are what helped us to become one of the strongest races of people in the world.
~Chene' Greene