Black women are the torch bearers of the race, constantly striving for excellence in everything we do, from our professional careers to our personal lives. The problem ensues when Black women are not able to reach their full potential because of their given situations, including poverty, young motherhood, and most importantly, illiteracy. The problem of illiteracy is rampant with women, especially Black women, who constitute 44% of the 60% of women who are illiterate. Literacy and the Black Woman addresses the under-education of Black women and the importance of educating us to not only elevate our families as a race as a whole, but also as individuals.
Literacy and the Black Woman was simply titled, but masterfully complex. Darling has a seemingly simple cause and effect equation for the uneducated black woman that spells out dire consequences for her in society if she doesn’t receive an adequate education. The problems that plague Black women in particular are twice as harmful because of our stance in society as Black, and because of our stance as women. White society has not been accepting of our being, which makes for a double-inferiority in regards to relating with whites professionally and personally. When literacy is referred to in literature, the reference of the education in relation to women always meant the education of White women because Whites did not want educated Blacks to coexist with them because of a fear of a more successful working-class emerging and the subordination of the implied superior Anglo-Saxon. But one important idea emerged from the text, saying that Black women come from “societies rich with oral traditions in which knowledge and wisdom are transmitted by word of mouth through recitation, song, and drama from generation to generation.” This statement is very true because when given the right opportunities, Black women can meet and exceed their own expectations, going on to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, and academicians.
Though there have been many Black women to achieve and succeed in their own lives, Black women as a whole have not been so fortunate to advance themselves in that manner. In honest truth, Black women are not afforded the same opportunities as Whites because we have to concentrate on caring for our families first and far too many times we put ourselves on the backburner. This leads to poverty and illiteracy in the offspring of these uneducated Black women. Poverty increases the crime rate and in turn the amount of poor, young Blacks going to prison, a sort of cycle of pain. What so many Black women fail to do is empower themselves, but if they did empower themselves and attain a higher education, they would empower the race as a whole. As Blacks and as women sometimes we feel that pursuing a higher degree in academia makes our family suffer. But the truth is that when a family sees their mother empowered, they in turn can be empowered to become better educated.
There must be more resources for Black women to become literate, like tutoring centers that not only teach these women how to read, but also show them the respect they may have never experienced from home and their family. This is what I love about Spelman College is that it is a conglomerate of driven Black women who truly love and support each other through our endeavors. No matter what our dreams may be, we all help lift the other up so that we can better ourselves not only as individuals, but as a race as a whole. With this support system, we can do anything and we in turn have a duty to go out into the world and help uplift other people, especially Black women, so that we can create a legacy of high achievers were success is the rule, not the exception.
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This is a great response to Darling’s “Literacy and the Black Woman.” I really liked how you emphasized the aspects of uplifting and empowerment and their importance for literacy among Black women and the Black race as a whole. I believe that it is through uplifting and empowering one another that we will find and create a way so as to have a higher literacy rate within the Black community. In her essay Darling wrote “The Black women who, against all odds, progressed through school and achieved college educations were decidedly dedicated to uplifting the race.” This line from the writing reminded me of all the successful women who atended or are currently attending Spelman College. Here at Spelman one of our sayings is that “We enter to learn, and exit to serve” and I believe that the education we receive at Spelman will help us to encourage other Black women to strive for excellence so that they can reach their full potential and more. Thus, the more we uplift each other and empower ourselves, the better we will achieve higher literacy rates amongst ourselves as Black women and our community.
ReplyDeleteKirah W. Brace
S.W.E.E.T did an excellent job with their response to author Sharon Darling's "Literacy and the Black Woman." Like Darling, they understand how important it is for black women to acquire literacy skills. I liked how they described black woman saying "...we are simply titled but masterly complex," explaining that black women are a more powerful group than society gives credit. They stressed the importance of encouraging ourselves to be literate. One motivating example was for uneducated mothers to gain literacy skills for their children who are the future. Darling explained the statistic that "if the mother is not educated, the more likely it is for her children to be illerate." Then those children will be outcasts of society and will not have the skills to support themselves. It was explained to the reader how society places black women and minorities in the mold of inferiority. When S.W.E.E.T said, "we are double inferior," I felt a connection to the text in that the oppressors already have their idea about black women. For one thing, we are placed in the inferiority bubble because we are women then there is the minority bubble. I had my experience when people did not expect a black woman could figure out math problems because men especially white men were naturally talented at math. S.W.E.E.T also stressed "the importance of educating us was to not only elevate our families as a race...but as individuals." So the more we uplift each other and pass down information, the better we will achieve literacy skills and less uncertain about our place in society.
ReplyDeleteShaniqua Smiley