Lessons from Down Under By: Bessie House-Soremekun



Bessie House-Soremekun take on growing up in the South during the Civil Rights movement. The affects of slavery led to different forms of literacies such as protesting, storytelling, etc. These forms of literacies are the reasoning of the change of literacy in the black community. The blacks understood that the white man could take almost anything materialistic away from you but was unable to touch your intelligence and your form of literacy. When I usually think of literacy I usually think of reading, writing, environment, and culture. However, Soremekun opened my eyes to a different perspective of literacy. She introduced a new form of literacy to me such as boycotting and protesting. When people started to get involved with the civil rights movement white people realized that blacks were getting more into politics and understanding it.

Reel Women: Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films

In Joanne Dowdy's Reel Women: Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films, she asks her students watch a few films and to look at them from a different perspective than if they were simply watching them for enjoyment. Many of the films portrayed the women in negative ways such as being abused, ignorant, and under the control of men. I think that this is very degrading because this is not all that Black women are. We have produced very successful women who have accomplished great things and were all very different from the characters that were portrayed in the movies. Not all Black women will allow themselves to be controlled and abused by a man , or hold a powerful position yet still act in ignorance, in fact most of us would never allow it. 

I believe that there should be more films about the strengths and accomplishments of Black women because this will this will cause the rest of the world to view us differently from what is portrayed in films. It will cause the world to see us not only for our bodies, but for our minds and hearts, therefore helping to put an end to and change this terrible label that has been placed on us for so many years. We must step up  and fight for the strong women that we truly are and not the weak and ignorant women that they think we are.  

Dysfunctional Literacies of Exclusion

In Mandi Chikombero's Dysfuctional Literacies of Exclusion: An Exploration of the Burdens of Literacy in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Condition, she explains that there are two different types of groups of literacies that people can be placed in.These groups are traditional literacies and colonial literacies. Traditional literacies are the literacies acquired through things that we've learned based on our personal or family traditions. Colonial traditions are ones that are acquired by what we are taught, mostly in the broad spectrum of the "accepted" way of being taught in our nation. She also explains "different literacies have various implications for understanding Black women's struggle for acceptance and inclusion in male-dominated societies". Implying that the Black woman's struggle is never really understood in a world that is seemingly "male-dominant". This example can also be geared towards education. Black women have a different way of understanding things, so while being taught, they will have different perceptions and viewpoints than other people, and based on our upbringing and history,we have and acquire many different literacies than males.
This article was very interesting because it made me think about my own literacy acquisition and how my own personal struggles and traditions have affected this acquisition. I believe that there should be teaching techniques implemented to help Black women to better understand the things that we are being taught.

Black Women/ Black Literature

In the interview between Joanna Kilgour Dowdy and Christina McVay, Dowdy drove to get a clear understanding as to why and how Ms. McVay got into teaching about Black women and Literature in the Pan-African Department and McVay. She speaks of never having the intentions of teaching in that department, but claims that she kind of "fell into it". While drinking at a bar, she met a man that would help to open her eyes to many new things, which ultimately led her to change her educational teaching pathway. This is so interesting to me, because she claims," It kind of aggravated me that there is a freshman English program over there in Pan-African because I never got any Black students in my class, so if I do Black literature, its White me standing in front of a White classroom, and it's like we're talking about some alien universe". This is very interesting to me because, I don't understand how, at that time, a university could arrange to have teachers teach these lessons, but the people who relate to it the most aren't even able to listen in all because of racial discrimination.
I think that McVay's method of teaching is very interesting and effective. She asks her students to create a "slang dictionary", by adding their own examples and definitions of certain words, and then making a translation using the "proper" definition. In my opinion, this is very effective because it creates a colloquialism between to different types of "languages" ( which relates back to the importance of the "mother tongue" as explained in Richardson's To Protect and Serve).
I really enjoyed reading this article, and I feel that every teacher that is in the English department show add some of McVay's teaching techniques to their curriculum.

Pimps Whores and Welfarebrats

This article takes a different point of view on the negativity that has been cast upon African Americans. Many people want to blame the government and society for their problems however; in this article the blame is on the community. It states how the government is the correlation of the pimp and African Americans is the correlation of the ho. Therefore; we have put ourselves in a postion where we depend on the government for financial assistance, food, and etc. Instead of makiing our lives better after the civil rights movement we took an easier way out by becoming the government's hoes. Instead of owning up to our own faults the article states that we blame it on racism. However; racism is not the case everytime the black community is pointed out for something like this. This article allowed me to see the viewpoint from the otherside. However; I use to think about it all the time. My mother used to call me a Republican because I was able to see their viewpoints on these matters. I believe that we can not just continue to blame the government for things that we have taken a huge part into as well. It is time that we own up to our laziness and greed and move forward by uplifting our black community. 

Storytelling

Storytelling depicts many different scenarios that all deal with the art of telling stories. Storytelling is very prominent throughout the world; For example, tribes in African tell many stories of their ancestors and children are told fairy tales and nursery rhymes. This form of communication is very important because traditions and heritage are passed down which helps to continue the many legacies that have come before us. Storytelling also features the story of someone who has told a lie. This type of storytelling is also very popular, whether it be a "little white lie" or something a little more serious, everybody does it from time to time. Story telling is considered to be one of the most popular forms of communication throughout the world. Without it, most of our history and traditions would be lost.

To Protect and Serve:African American Female Literacies

 In Elaine Richardson's To Protect and Serve:African American Female Literacies, she speaks on how African American children are brought up and raised to speak with a "mother tongue". This language is important to African Americans, especially women because it helps to mold and shape us. Consequently, it can be a setback because society stereotypes us through this language, and some women become intimidated and hurt by this instead of going against it and speaking out. We have to speak out and help people to understand that this is an important part of who we are.
 This language is also important because it is a true representation of how we are raised and taught. African American women in Literacy have and advantage because they have an understanding of how we view the world as well as the rest of society's views, so they are able to effectively depict and portray both viewpoints in their writings.

The "mother tongue" should not be ruled out as irrelevant and incorrect  according to the rest of the world because it is very important to the African American society and ruling it out rules out an important portion or piece of the black community. If the rest of society can learn to accept and understand our "other language", they will have a better understanding of who we are.

To Be Black Female and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation

Leonie C.R. Smith states how the road to education, the key to our success, is difficult but promising. Being educated is her destiny, I believe that it should be every black woman's destiny. She takes us on her life journey, where she runs into many obstacles, of being a literate black woman. She starts off in Antigua with her family who come from a long line of illiteracy although her father and mother were intelligent they did not have the forms to verify, due to their choice to drop out of school to provide for their family. Even though she came from a non-educated background she still strived and believed that she could get through school due to the fact that her family were survivors and very resilient. Education was very important  to her due to her grandmother being victimized and losing her estate due to her illiteracy.

Literacy and the Black Woman

In Sharon M. Darling's work Literacy and the Black Woman, she addresses some of the main arguements and topics involving being a black woman. She states that black women represents oxymoronic concepts, such as black women represents endurance and strength but we are at the risk of poverty. The state that black women are in did not just start, we have been buried up to our waist in it for hundreds of years. Her main goal for writing this piece is to encourage the black woman that literacy is power and with it we can make it out of the state that we are in today. Because twenty-five percent of the world is illiterate and black women are forty-four percent of the sixty percent of women who are illterate. She traces the impact of literacy and black woman all the way back where the crisis started, in slavery.

So many factors are the cause of the crisis that black women are in today. Teen pregnancy, high school drop-outs, welfare and food-stamp recipients, etc.

Being born as a black woman makes you a statistic and at risk of being a failure. However; I believe that your past does not set the brightness of your future. Even though we are given the unfair advantage in school and in the work environment we still are black women. Black women are known to be fighters and we are the strongest due to our perserverance and resilience through everything that life has thrown our way, we made it through and we have it the hardest. It is not in our nature nor our history to stop believing and stop fighting for our rights and even though the world might not admit it yet they know that we are the strongest race/gender to have ever walk this Earth. If through literacy we will make people listen to us and announce that the Black woman is here, she demands respect, and she is here to stay.

“Going Against The Grain: The Acquisition and Use of Literacy”

     The struggle and trials that black people had to endure is amazingly thrilling. The ability of  learning to read and write was rare and praised if occured, especially in a black woman's case. I could not imagine a life where I would not have the opportunity of learning literacy. This piece of work opened my eyes up to where I am grateful to be a literate African-American woman. Due to the fact that women were not even recognized for their hardships and their state of being human. Maria W. Stewart and Lucy Terry proved that through literacy you are giving a voice and that you can be heard when you use your voice to speak out against injustices. Literacy can bring change and with it you can not be silenced. 

      I couldn't help but realize how my generation has strayed away form the path that out ancestors paved away for us. Not many of us are willing to fight anymore they are more willing to sit back and watch our brothers and sisters be mistreated. Not only that, we have turned against one another and brought hurt, pain, and shame upon our people. Somewhere along the way we forgot how to fight for what was right and for justice. We must find our way before its to late, before we are put back in the mindset of slavery once again.

    The different ways that people used to teach blacks literacy was astonishing. For people to be able and willingly to go out their way for education shows me that we must restore the importance of education in our society. We have yet to take advantage of free education in our society and until we do we will continue to go downhill. Change is very much needed and with African-American women being the strongest species we must fight for change and we will conquer it.

~Schylundye 

Women and Literacy in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple 137

Alice Walker portrays the struggle of an oppressed woman in The Color Purple. Her main
argument basically states that by having your own voice and not allowing someone to
speak for you is a key element in freedom. By letting another person control you,  you
are placing your freedom in their hands. Ceily was controlled by her husband for many
years and when she became tired and realized that she in fact was oppressed, she
decided to do something about it i.e deciding to leave her husband and move out their
home.


A woman should be able to think and voice out for themselves. I believe
that by not having a voice is an oppression of itself. By not having a voice one is stuck
into a state of vulnerability to whomever is controlling that persons life, and once into
that state it is extremely hard to break from it. In order to be able to read and write you
must have a voice of your own before hand therefore: you are able to analyze and and
portray the literacy from your own point of view and knowledge.

Black and on Welfare

Sandra Golden engages her readers by letting them know that I've been through the heartbreaking discrimination when it comes to being on welfare. Especially being a black educated woman on welfare. She states how she lost pretty much everything while she was still pregnant with her child which her to walk through the doors of the County Department of Human Services. The discrimination that she got there from the case manager led her to study black women who are discriminated by the Welfare system. One of her main points is that Welfare systems dont acknowledge the social literacy skills that black women possess.

Over the years political icons have strived to end the true purpose of Welfare. By stricting people up to five years to be on and off welfare and penny pinching amounts of money for food stamps. Throughout her studies she noticed that discrimination in the Welfare system could be counted back all the way to 1935.

In my personal opinion I find that some movies and music have a negative influence on the way people see welfare. By showing lazy women who dont work and use their welfare check to take care of themselves and not their children puts a bad picture in some people's heads. However; that does not make an excuse to judge one on their past and unfortunes. I feel that we as a black community should change the image of black women and men on welfare if we want others to change their opinions on black women and men on welfare.

Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Women Peer Counselors 69

I believe that literacy is extremely important and should be taken very seriously, because it will take u far in life. "Being a literate black woman means that I can speak and what I have to say will be heard because I know what I am talking about." Being literate gives you individuality, it gives the opportunity to know what is going on in the world therefore; you will be able to make your own decisions and have your own voice. Due to that, people will respect it and listen to you. Black women should enforce literacy onto themselves therefore we will be more influential on our youth today. I enjoyed this reading very much because I was able to relate to it on a personal level. I want to be an influence on foster children by enforcing the importance of literacy and education. Being able to use my life as an example of how I came from nothing to Spelman College. However; my journey here is due my ability to network who have been where I wanted to go therefore; I needed to display how literate I was in order to get their help and attention.