Going Against the Grain

     Although Jefferson owned personal slaves he still insisted that he did not agree with slavery. In the reading Going Against the Grain the author mentions that Jefferson's distaste for slavery was shared by others. That in which they were against the system of slavery but not necessarily in support of the quality of the Africans. At this time there was a lot of controversey about the issue of slavery but very few people were willing to take action for what they believed to be right and/or wrong. There were many statesmen against slavery and many that believed that they should be incorporated into the society. Thus, maintaining the skills to read and write. In the early 17th century few people reached out to educate some of the slaves, for at this time schooling opportunities were rising for both men and women. Three literacy activists during this time was Reverend Samuel Thomas, Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray, and Elias Neau. They set out to educate the captive slaves so that they may become literate and interact as civilized people.

Going Against the Grain

    African American women have always struggled to find their place in society. Going Against the Grain extensively explores the history from where it all begin. Even during slavery, African American women felt the need to redefine themselves in a society where they were used and abused. This essay also delves into how the black women found value in herself in the mist of being a slave. It explains how she was a vital part of the community because one of her main roles was to birth future generations of slaves. Literacy of black women is introduced in this text fairly early speaking about the need for black women to redefine themselves as  human beings with a purpose. Literacy was a space for them to cast out all of the negative stereotypes.

“My Life as a Welfare Brat” Parker

     

      “The government is not your source, God is your source. He’s the one who takes care of you. You do not depend on the government!” This quote out of a pastor’s mouth was the ultimate turning point for a woman who lived off of cheating the welfare system. A woman who was raised in a respectable home but was over come by the evils of life. Partying, drugs, and casual sex was the main priority of Parker and she soon became engulfed into the world of lying and cheating. She became introduced to the welfare system by her friend after her first pregnancy and soon realized she could cheat the system that was meant to be a temporary system of relief.
  This welfare brat got pregnant numerous times, was without a job, and sold Medi-cal stickers in order to cheat the system. She believed Welfare was an entitlement for being a single mother. Living a life of obstruction and deceit there was almost no hope for Parker’s future. Although as she felt all hope was gone, Parker found inspiration in the power of faith and religion. She had worked for three Christian men who always hassled her about her destructive life and giving her life to God. It ironically although took her four abortions and a fifth pregnancy to turn to Christ. The birth of her first child made her see the world in a new light. One that forced her to think about the possibilities of a future that involved having a full-time job and providing a better life for her child Angel.
After living years of a life that involved jumping from man to man, partying, and doing drugs the only two things that motivated Parker to do better for her self was her daughter and the power of God. She realized that there was nothing disgraceful about being on welfare as a means of temporary assistance, although abusing the system was another story. Although it shows how powerful religion and the existence of the Lord is in a person’s life. After years of living recklessly, one uplifting sermon was able to change her whole life for the better. She vowed to get off of welfare, get rid of nasty men, be abstinent until marriage, and become a role model for her daughter.
She is now able to tell her story on Oprah to millions as a means to expose the problems and the welfare system and ultimately show those on it that it should only be used as a temporary means of assistance. This leads back to the quote “the government is not your source, God is your source. The government is not always going to be there in times of need, but God will. The government will pay for necessities temporarily but will not pay for other areas of life in the long run. Ultimately Parker was able to recognize the God should be her first and last resort.

Literacies of Exclusion

       Throughout time the role of women has been perceived as child bearing figures only necessary to take care of household chores. In almost every culture as well as race females are depicted in this same light. Literacies of Exclusion gives the two different types of literacies in which people may be categorized in. The first being traditional literacy and the other being colonial literacy, and both belonging to the category of cultural literacy. In the Zibabwean culture each sex is counseled to operate only within its designated role. Like in most cultures the role of a woman is that of a daughter, wife, and mother. They are not expected to do anything else besides take care of the home and do as the man instructs you to do. For the longest, women were not even expected to receive an education, and in most cases they were not given that privilege. This is said to be traditional literacy. It was tradition for a woman to not receive academic advancement in life. She was not given the privilege to go to school and have a chance to broaden her literacy aquisition, she was only traditionally expected to remain at home and tend to the household chores and children. Colonial literacy, as mentioned in Literacies of Exclusion, is when the male figure dictates that the female figure behave in a specific manner; thus allowing the woman to receive an education but still perceiving her as the follower in society. In both aspects of literacy the woman is still expected to take instruction by the male figure and allow him to take dictatorship in the relationship. Both of these literacies create 'underdogs' as a woman. Either way it seems as if a woman can not win when it comes to male domination. Although many characteristics of this 'female role' still continue to reside in many cultures in today's society, we as women are beginning to take action and chose a role in which to advance our own life.

Women and Literacy in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

      We all know that society can often times value men over women. Being a woman in general puts you in a box that you have to fight to get out of and scream that you have a voice and you will be heard, however men are rarely to be put in this box in the first place. So if you are a woman, biologically you are already silenced and your opinion is dismissed before you can even open your mouth to speak. So now let’s say that you have two biological aspects going against your favor; you are a woman and you are also African American. This is a double whammy. The odds are stacked up so high in front of your face you can barely see the green grass on the other side. However, the author of Women and Literacy in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, E. Yvette Walters, convinces us that as black women we can see and have seen the green grass.

      Before black women were able to publish their literacy; they still had something to say. Walters gives her audience some examples of black women writers and the barriers that are broken down because of them. She celebrates the fact that for once the pen is in the black woman’s hand and they have the turn to tell their own story. She explains some of the different complex relationships that black women go through with themselves, their oppressors, and friends. These complex relationships are often themes in a lot of literature composed by black women. Walters analyzes one particular black woman’s work, Alice Walker. She is the author of the famous The Color Purple, which is originally a book that has been remade into a movie and rather recently a broadway play.
      This particular work has every aspect of the five major epistemological categories that Walters presents to us from which women view reality and themselves and draw conclusions about truth, knowledge, and authority. This information was collected from an intensive interview/case study approach of 135 women. The five major categories are: Silence, Received Knowledge, Subjective Knowledge, Procedural Knowledge, and Constructed knowledge. All of these types of oppression that modern day women experience are also represented in The Color Purple. Celie, the main character of the work, experiences all of these things as an oppressed black woman who desires to be literate and liberated from her box. So in this sense, Walters brings us full circle with the common realities we face as women regardless of race; the box still exist.

Real Women: Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films By: Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

        The reading was able to identify numerous different feature films in which exposed the literate capabilities in different socio-cultural situations. The Author, Joanne Kilgour Dowdy recognizes the importance of not only reading about black women but also watching them in film to understand key concepts. Concepts as stated by Dowdy as fashion trends, social trends, politics, educational norms, religious mores, history, and family relationships. Films create a visual image that often times cannot be read or understood in a novel. One important topic that Joanne Dowdy identifies and exposes is the different literacy levels of black women in certain situations. These situations expose how black people communicate and interact in the white community. Often times these black women’s lived experiences play a key role in their different literacy levels.  

            White filmmakers, writers, and Hollywood have created typical black figures in which they believe convey the stereotypical black women. Characters of addicts, mammy’s, homemakers are among the most popular roles portrayed of African Americans. In the reading Joanne Kilgour Dowdy speaks about how black women are stuck in barriers based off of skin color, language, financial background, and educational preparation which all play a role in their literacy. In the movies she displays how these factors ultimately affect the different characters literacy and how it plays a role in their everyday lives. Through the movies she makes different points concerning the level of literacy and the different literacy’s black women have. Some need certain levels of literacy to function in a white dominant society, while others make it in life without much literacy at all.

 Another issue she identifies with is that literacy can be of book smarts and that of street smarts. Many characters in the movies she displayed were better off with street smarts that allowed them to be aware of the world around them and be able to handle different social situations. Other aspects identified showed that sometimes being literate in either books or the streets was not an advantage. The advantage often lay in the hands of white elite and those with economic power. Without the performances by black actress such as Woopi Goldberg, Halle Berry, and Angela Bassett black women would not be exposed to how black women fit in the white society. Films provide another resource of literacy for black women to reference to along with that of black literature and novels. The readings central theme conveys the point that it is important to view black women in the light of film. Recognizing how white storywriters portray us to the rest of the world plays a large role in how we perceive ourselves. These award winning films are being sold and distributed around the world and whether we know it or not are shaping the image of the black women.

Going Against the Grain

       O, ye daughters of Africa, awake! Awake! Arise! From the very first sentence the reading immediately establishes its purpose of empowering black women. Black women once held back by slavery and were not able to acquire their ultimate level of self sufficiency in regards to literacy. Despite their historical past of being degraded and facing discrimination due to their color and gender, black women have fought to go against the grain. Although, times have changed and have grown from a society of illiterate colored woman to one of well educated successful individuals. These woman were beaten down but were still able to recognize that literacy was a key component to success. The misconceptions identified in the declaration of independence identified the insufficiencies of the principles America was built on. From the hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson to the efforts to Benjamin Franklin the historical reference play a large part of how black women today have conquered literacy. It leads back to women before Harriet Tubman who fought to end slavery to Terry Prince who fought for her rights before the Supreme Court. It’s due to all these historical events that black women who were mothers, daughters, and storytellers into the world of being conscious thinking women who are capable of defying odd, essentially going against the grain.       
    

Literacy and the Black Woman

Sharon M. Darling speaks about the literacy of the black woman in her essay entitled Literacy and the Black Woman. She begins by going back into the days of slavery and speaking about  a black woman from a historical perspective. At this day and time, Darling says, "The importance of reading and writing skills were recognized early". A black woman was viewed as a workhorse with liabilities. Her liabilities was her ability to bear children and thus be burdened by rearing children. She was not given the choice or option to posess reading and writing skills. In today's society everyone is given the oppurtunity to attain literacy skills. Lim (1996) reported that 25% of the world's population is illiterate, 60% being women, and 44% being black women. Darling speaks about the high percentage rate of illiterate black women due to teenage pregnancy causing the to give up on school. Which goes back to slavery days when the child was viewed as being a burden.

Black Woman/Black Literature Christina McVay

After reading the interview, I was able to gain an insight on the views of black literature from another person’s point of view. Christina McVay a white instructor teaches black women about black oral and written language. In the beginning of the reading I was a bit hesitant towards McVay’s thoughts towards black language. I quickly prejudged and questioned whether or not a white women could effectively teach black language to black women themselves. In my opinion one who did not live the life of an African American could not truly appreciate the language or its concept. Her background in German, Russian, and English did not provide a justification for now teaching oral and written discourse of Black English. One quote I viewed as being one sided was “one of the communities that has the greatest oral dexterity is the black community. I believe that comes that ling oral tradition from Africa right through slavery and Jim Crow in thus country”. To me this statement showed her lack of knowledge of African American people and their past. African Americans had a thriving past of language even before the time of slavery or Jim Crow, but I soon realized I was only looking at things from my own perspective. In the interview McVay spoke upon how about two weeks into her class she always came upon the same questions.

“Miss McVay what are you doing over here anyway? Why are you teaching this class?” And through how response she enlightened my own thinking. She told her students that although she was clearly not black she did have knowledge on language and writing. She also recognized that learning correctly involved not only taking in information but adding your own experiences and knowledge on the subject. Having a relationship among her students where they both learned from each other is one concept that needs to translate among the rest of the world. We often shut others out because we believe they cannot relate to our own experiences not knowing what they may have to offer to the plate. 

“It’s important that they see themselves in what they’re reading”. From this quote I began to understand why many African Americans don’t read. They are unable to relate to relate to the language, experiences, and people in the stories they read. Although this class Christina McVay teaches I believe is essential to all people regardless of color. Despite the false truth in that black language is improper, she is able to show African Americans that their language is important it just should not be used in college papers. A language is a big part of a culture and being able to recognize its importance is one step to accepting oneself. From this class African Americans are able to see their language as a beauty created by their past, a stepping stool to the future, and an insight to their present. It is not something to be ashamed of because it is a big part of what sets us apart from others. One theme I gained from McVay’s is that others see beauty in our tradition and unless we accept them ourselves we will never truly progress in life.