Hard Work Pays Off

Hard work pays off. That statement came to mind as I read this reading. The author talks about how she worked in the cotton fields when she was a young girl and how that played a factor as to who she is now.
It reminds me of all the discipline I went through when I was younger and still to this day. I remember talking to one of my friends recently in the cafeteria. We were discussing the snow Maryland is getting since we’re both from Maryland. We had different views about the snow. She wished that she was home so she could watch the snow fall from the sky. I, however, was not thrilled about it and was happy to be down here and Georgia. I expressed my dread for snow because I always would have to shovel the snow. No matter how cold or how many feet of snow we received, my parents always had my brother and I out there helping them. My mom even told me that once I could hold a shovel I was immediately put to work.
My friend informed me that her and her mother never shoveled the snow. It would only be her father and younger brother out there battling the storm. I began to become upset by this. I remember going home for Christmas break and shoveling snow with my family. I realized that my neighbors were all out as well except for one family who had a set of teenage twin daughters. The father and younger son would be out there shoveling while the twins and their mother stayed inside. It made me mad picturing them lounging inside sipping hot chocolate and watching us work from the comforts of their couch. So, to myself, I automatically thought that my friend was lazy.
I never thought it was fair that my parents made my brother and I shovel snow all the time and do yard work. When I was younger, I would also get upset because all my friends would get money for their good grades, even if they had two A’s. I, on the other hand, would get straight A’s and get no reward.
When I would tell my parents about my frustrations, saying that I get good grades and get nothing in return, my dad would always say something along the lines of, “I shouldn’t need to give you money to get good grades because you should be getting them anyway.” Or “You’ll get your reward in the future because hard work pays off.” I hated that. I didn’t want to look towards the future. I wanted money right then. That’s all I cared about.
As I got older, I found it to be a hassle asking my parents for money. “You need to get a job” they would tell me. So I did. Then I would end up having two jobs at one time because I loved the satisfaction of making my own money and not having to hear the word “no” from my parents when I wanted something. However, with me having a job, my parents expected me to be able to pay for my gas, phone bill, some of my car insurance and food. At times I would buy groceries for my parents so they wouldn’t have to go out.
This may sound like a hard life, but I actually appreciate my parents for doing this now. It taught me discipline and responsibility. It taught how to look down the road instead of seeing what’s right in front of me. I no longer feel like my school accomplishments aren’t being recognized because I know one day they will once I obtain my dream job. I also don’t complain about shoveling snow because I realized that my parents are getting older. I feel as if they don’t need to be out there risking their health so if they go inside a little earlier to get warmth and rest, I’ll understand.

"Reel" Women

Leading black actresses have been portrayed as people with either no literacy or very little. More often than not in many movies they have either been stay-at-home moms or maids with little or no economic literacy and were dependent on someone in their lives. Especially the times that the women were portrayed as drug addicts.
In this passsage, Kilgour Dowdy shows how in about 9 movies how these leading actresses have to play certain characters while most of the time there is someone white that has to come along and help them out. For example in the movie "Losing Isiah" Halle Berry plays a crack addict that had to give up her baby and is barely literate. Also Meryl Streep comes along and takes care of the baby and Berry basically has to prove that to her that she can take care of the baby now. It was determined that Halle Berry's character had to improve her level of literacy in the book sense or else there was no possible chance to get her baby.
In all the other movies that they chose also there was something wrong with the Black women characters that they needed to improve their literacy in order to make their situation better, which sort of portrays how many view black women.

Black Women: As Seen on TV

Prior to reading Joanne Dowdy's except on Black Women and Literacy in Featured Films, I was taught to analyze movies limited to its cinematography. For instance, I was taught to identify and analyze camera shots and angles to better understand why the director made that shot. However Dowdy takes cinema to another level as she analyzes black women identity of a particular era in film. Dowdy discussed that, " rules and roles create social expectations...[which] was believed [were] the natural order of things..." (166). She described popular black films like "The Color Purple", "Saving Isiah", and "Sarafina" that portrayed black women having different kinds of literacy going through trials and truimphs. I identified with the movie "The Color Purple."
In the movie "The Color Purple", Celie had her life dominated by her husband because she was unintelligent. However, Dowdy sheads light saying, "Goldberg's portrayal of a woman who makes a way out of no way is both compelling and informative,"(171). Though Celie could not read and write, she found inner strength doing other things. Eventually, Celie became the owner of a sewing store. Dowdy also included the film taught that "there are many ways to be functional in the world without reading and writing skills,"(172). This film showcased the talent black women possessed.
Moreover, these popular films opened not only the doors for black women to be stars in movie production but showcased the many alternative literacies black women were known to posess. In "The Color Purple", Celie could not read but she could sew. Dowdy discussed the movie literacy we need to have to analyze the dialect, location, and era of black movies to understand how bigger society thinks of us. Besides that I enjoyed reading her except.

Shaniqua Smiley

Going Against the Grain

Reading this text had me very intrigued. I was intrigued for the perseverance of black people trying to obtain literacy. Whether it was learning from their masters, standing outside a school house, or passing down culture to each other; it was very inspiring.

However, becoming aware of my ancestor’s struggle to gain access to all of the literate amenities that white people had formed a disappointment towards my own generation. I realize that most of us hardly take advantage of all the resources given to us; we take them for granted. Black people in earlier times had to fight for an education and for equality. Even when they had education, it was segregated and of poor quality compared to whites. I believe that over the years, the black community has become lazy. Why is this?
For one, I believe the household contributes to this lack of literacy devotion. If there aren’t any literate family members, or members who encourage literacy, what can we expect for our future? My parents were always introducing me to new things to build on my literacy skills, and still manage to do it to this day while I’m in college.
In the text, it stated how the enslaved taught each other by passing down information they obtained to the youth. In some or most cases, this tradition still continues today, no matter what race or culture, however in my opinion I believe this action only takes place in literate households.
What can we do to change this? Can we encourage parents and other family members to become more involved with the younger communities, and not just their own families? Unfortunately, some families do not have access to certain resources, so when will we step up together and better our younger generations for the future?
To me it’s like how Obama wants to have more dedicated teachers in the school system so they can teach students more effectively. Also, so the students can become more interested in the math and science areas.

African American Women Redefined

Love is a powerful feeling. It wil make you hold on to something that may be untangible or unstable. In the book, Going Against the Grain by Maria Stewart, she brought light to African American women whose love and unbroken spirit caused them to have literacy for generations. During slavery, black people were not allowed to be literate, as an read and write. However black slave women developed other literacies and passed that information through generations. They were seen as interpretors and reinterpretors in the world, which was still present in post-slavery. More power is given to the black woman than what is credited to her.

Personally what looks human and is classified as human is human. The article mentioned black women had to first prove themselves as human. In the past we were treated more so like animals than human. However black women proven to have maintained their motherly literacy. The desire to keep their communities intact and not lose their tradition, caused them to have oral literacy to pass down tradition to the children.

Moreover the first generation of black women have achieved to manage their literacy in major tragedies in history. They could interpret symbols and languages to pass down African history to future generations. This article brought insight to how resilient and fearless black women have been. I enjoyed this article.

Shaniqua Smiley

Education Unveiled

Thousands of talented, aspiring focused black women come to Spelman College to make their dreams to change the world come true. The sisterhood and teachings of identity in African Diaspora classes offered at Spelman are available to everyone which are rare at other colleges. These are the reasons I would think Leonie Smith author of To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation would have liked to attend. Smith was one out of 11 children born in Antigua to two talented, gifted parents. She later decided to pursue education in America but being faced with rascism, identity, and accusations of her being illiterate not only alienated her but made her a stronger black woman.
Most Historically Black Colleges are overlooked as institutions to earn quality education. Colleges like Spelman College and Morehouse School of Medicine are the few Black colleges that taught in the fields science, medicine, and technology. For Smith, she was determined to graduate from a majority white college to earn a leg up in the world. Regardless of the rascism the young Antiguan faced at Hamilton College, she did not want to fail her intelletual father and talented mother. Before Smith went to America, she was instilled with the importance of an education. She described "her father was an intelligent boy who had to drop out of school...to help his family..."(183). She was definitely isolated because of her skin color at the college. She described, "Professors did not to hold the same high expectations of Black students," (194). During that time, she felt sectioned off from herself and the college which was something she would have not gone through at a HBCU.
One concept that was taught in African Diaspora class offered at Spelman College is there are alternatives to knowledge. When Smith explained, "[she] had never seen a multiple-choice test before...and was subsequently labeled illiterate,"(187-188) described the American school system as a culturally bias system. Even after she eventually she became accustomed to the American English system she had difficulty with fitting into society. Again, Black colleges try to instill in their students a sense of identity as well as education. Personally, it is an alternative form of education to black students who have been previously been brainwashed with negative images of black people. Unfortunately halve of Smith's life, who faced rascism was not equiped with the knowledge and support black colleges give to their students so she could confidently face the world.
Moreover it was informing to hear about the world's negative view of Black people from a black Antiguan woman who pursued education in America. Smith exposed the false assumption of education that it is obtained, free from rascism, discrimination, and oppression. Unlike the white students who got the most out of college which includes fun, she was isolated in her dorm. Her story compelled me to say we need to draw a line through sectionalism in the world. If the educational system was not culturally bias smart intellectual immigrants who are literate could pursue their dreams to be intellitually challenged. In addition black colleges offer quality and equal education compared to any college. Overall I enjoyed the book.

Black Women/Black Literature

What really fascinated me about this particular text is the overall structure of the dialogue in an interview process. Presented here is a dialogue between the author Joanne Kilgour Dowdy and educator Christina McVay. The passage starts with McVay describing herself such as where she was born and raised and various details about her educational background. This opening question from Dowdy allows the reader to get to know McVay in a personal light. McVay's personal experiences also provide the audience with a blueprint as to how this unlikely professor got involved with teaching English in the Pan-African department at Kent State University. What makes Christina McVay an unlikely candidate to teach this particular topic is because she is Caucasian teaching this topic to a predominantly white student population.

McVay described this as teaching something of an alien nature that is alien to both her and the students. Later in her teaching career McVay was transferred to teach in a more suitable environment, an environment that would more than likely appreciate Pan-African English.

What I find to be truly fascinating about McVay's experiences at Kent State is that everything that occurred happened for a reason. She had majored in German and Russian while trying to teach herself Greek and Arabic but instead went on to teach English.

What I found interesting about McVay is she is aware of that fact that many students typically do not find joy in English. I feel as though I am one of those students. One of the problems with English for me is I feel it is not easy to relate to because it was something that has been around for thousands of years and it is rather passed down from generation to generation. What McVay showed me and her students is that English can be intriguing. One of her tactics to gain interest in the English language is to have her students create a slang dictionary. This slang dictionary is to be used much like a regular dictionary with the pronunciation and examples and definitions of how a particular word can be used. I admire the fact that McVay knew how to make slang educational yet intriguing. With McVay now teaching a predominantly black student population she found a way to relate to her students while still having a teachers perspective included.

Overall in this interview the audience was able to gain a fuller understanding of Christina McVay and how her educational techniques have allowed students to gain a fuller understanding of the English language and how it is not just about the English consensus but also black English. McVay revealed that it is acceptable to include black literature in a school curriculum and she allowed students to find how they themselves can connect to literature. McVay showed that teaching did not have to be traditional but that a teacher can relate to her students. McVay provided teaching strategies to teachers and hope in the English language and English literature to students.

-Kori Coleman