The Door To Success

After reading the article, To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation by Leonie C. R. Smith, I realized that everyone’s life journey are not the same. Though our paths may be different, we may have a different family structure, or have cultural differences, we can still relate to each other on some level. Through out this article, I was able to connect with the writer in two main areas. First, her value of education and second when she asks the question, “What it means to be black in America?”
Education is said to be the door of success and opportunity. Through education one can obtain a well-paying job, and relieve financial hardship. In the article, Smith states, “My mother also passed on the importance of education as a vehicle to becoming independent and self- sufficient.” The importance of education was stressed in my household, as well. My grandmother was the oldest of 13 and she spent her days working and nurturing her children. Though my grandmother did not attend college, she knew the importance of education and she put all her six children through college. With this instilled background of education my mother wants me to work hard and also, receive an education, obtain my masters and PhD, as well as travel the world. My mother’s main dream is for me to experience all that she was not able to.
Later in the reading Smith decides to continue her education in America and later enrolls in a predominately white institution. It was in this new environment where Smith started to ask the question: What does it mean to be Black in America? While her school focused on the basic science and math, there was no class that tailored to her blackness and African Diaspora. I am proud to attend a school that is tailored to my needs as a Black woman. I know that there is a place here for me were I am not judged based on the color of my skin but, valued based on my character. Attending Spelman College, has giving me the opportunity to continue my education with students who look like me and have similar experiences as I do. This might be the one time in my life where I am surrounded positive, Black females and I am thankful for this opportunity.

Black Women/Black Literature

The most striking thing about Black Women/Black Literature, the interview of Christina McVay, conducted by Joannne Kilgour Dowdy, was that Christina McVay is a WHITE woman with such a passion for the BLACK Culture. She respects it as a very powerful and important culture and studies many of its components. She especially admires the literature and the language that stems from the Black culture. She says that she has read a lot of Black literature by authors such as Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin and that her master’s in Comparative Literature gives her the authority to say that these works are just as good as any of the German or Russian classics that people may refer to. As far as the language that derives from the Black culture, McVay says that this is something to be celebrated. Just as any other language it has rules in its use and can and should be used at the right times and places, despite any negative connotations about it.
Some Black people find it necessary to distance themselves from their own culture in order to “fit in”, and advance in life. They feel that their culture is not accepted on a mainstream scale and they must escape it in order to become successful in life. They are taught that the way of life that they know and live is not the “right” way. McVay is a great leader because she introduces the opposite theory to her students. She teaches them that their culture and the art it produces, such as literature, are to be celebrated rather than suppressed. She makes them think by reaching out to them on their level rather than trying to approach them in an intimidating, overbearing manner. She teaches them the positive things that come of Black culture rather than focus on the negatives. She has an open mind, not only as a White woman studying the Black culture, but as a professor who also learns from her students. McVay knows that there are things that her students can introduce to the classroom because of their own backgrounds and experiences that she may be unfamiliar with because she isn’t a product of the Black culture. Overall Christina McVay is an inspiring woman who teaches a powerful lesson by doing something that she loves.

Literacy and the Black Woman

Literacy and the Black Woman by Sharon M. Darling

Black women have been being oppressed for hundreds of years. They were never afforded some of the rights given to black men or white women. This leads to the notion that Black woman are faced with a double bias, race and sex, which "justifies" why black women are at the mercy of white political system. Luckily, black women learned early on that one of the major factors causing a division between them and their oppressors was literacy. As black women tried to max their education they still did not achieve the same level as their white counterparts, which contributes to the cycle of poverty and illiteracy. Secretly they were determined to learn to read, write, and educate their children.
Immediately after the emancipation of the enslaved people Black women believed they would get the education they had always sought. Before their dream could manifest, many laws were passed banning their education. After some social pressure Black woman were allowed to get an education but it was not a very good one. The educations they were allowed to receive served more as a regulation rather than something to uplift them. They were taught in a manner that would never allow them to become economically, or educationally equal to White women. 25% of the world is illiterate, 60% of these people are females, 44% of these females being Black.
Sharon Darling’s essay Literacy and the Black Woman speaks about this sensitive topic. As young Black women, we can appreciate many of the possible perspectives on this subject. It is understandable that it has always been hard for Black women to thrive in a society such as the one we live in, and that it may be difficult to prosper. The essay entails a general idea that Black women have a sense of hopelessness and despair, almost as if the task of becoming a literate Black female is an impossible feat. It uses some of life’s obstacles as a crutch disabling Black women from being strong empowered figures. When examining a Historically Black all female institution such as Spelman College one can see how far from the truth that really is. Our school is filled with young women with a powerful thirst for knowledge, pushing themselves to succeed against all odds. In this article the answer to this problem of Black women and their poor literacy is establishing more programs that will help them. It explains in order to really help them we must build a literacy gap which means to meet them where they are and to provide resources not only educationally but socially as well.