African-Americans were not always allowed the access to education and literacy that we have available to us today. Our acquisition of literacy has been from experiences that force us to be literate or threaten our survival. The main institution that barred us from being formally literate was slavery. As slaves, we were not allowed to learn how to read and write, and many were even separated from family members so they could not communicate and possibly cause a slave uprising. Another entity that barred so many African-Americans from becoming literate was Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow era of the South practiced the doctrine “separate, but unequal” under the guise that the segregation of Blacks and Whites was equal. This severely impacted us in the classroom where Blacks were given torn and incomplete books and their history was minimized, if not ignored all together.
In Lessons from Down Under, Bessie House-Soremekum discusses growing up in rural Alabama with a family that appreciated and acquired literacy through education. Many of her family members were teachers, and she grew up with literature around the house that engaged her and fostered in her the desire to become an avid reader. This also helped her excel as a student and was even considered for skipping to a higher grade. She also had a close relationship with her grandmother who was also a teacher. The knowledge that she and the rest of her family shared with her made her want to become an academician and attain her Ph.D. Dr. House-Soremekun thought that this would demonstrate her desire to continue the tradition of becoming formally literate through education in her family.
Growing up in the South, Soremekun experienced the race game that was played: Whites were superior, and Blacks were supposed to be addressed as their inferiors. One day Soremekum took her grandmother to the pharmacy and a young, teenaged White girl was working behind the counter. She gave her grandmother the medication and told her “Bessie, your medication is ready”. Her granddaughter responded and said “Her name is Mrs. Fannings”. Her grandmother said that that was the way they (Whites) were raised. This made Soremekun understand the unwritten rules of literacy that ruled the South. This is also why she uses her titles Dr. or Mrs. House-Soremekun, in order to give posthumously the respect that her grandmother was denied by Whites. This is what drove her to be academician she is today, in order to get respect that she deserves.
In a way, this represents the ambition that many Black women have to succeed. Many of the women that I speak to have very high expectations for themselves and accept nothing less than her best. We all have high goals, myself included, to be the very best in whatever field we choose. Many of us are used to being told that we exemplify the Black race, but are excluded from the broad spectrum of the human race. Whether we are aware of it or not, our ambition sends us to advanced schools to attain degrees that in turn give us titles. Maybe the reason why we are so ambitious is because we want respect and to be called by our name. When others recognize the sacrifice and hard work that it will take us to arrive at our respective destinations, we will all know that all struggle was worth it, because you are nothing without your name.
In Lessons from Down Under, Bessie House-Soremekum discusses growing up in rural Alabama with a family that appreciated and acquired literacy through education. Many of her family members were teachers, and she grew up with literature around the house that engaged her and fostered in her the desire to become an avid reader. This also helped her excel as a student and was even considered for skipping to a higher grade. She also had a close relationship with her grandmother who was also a teacher. The knowledge that she and the rest of her family shared with her made her want to become an academician and attain her Ph.D. Dr. House-Soremekun thought that this would demonstrate her desire to continue the tradition of becoming formally literate through education in her family.
Growing up in the South, Soremekun experienced the race game that was played: Whites were superior, and Blacks were supposed to be addressed as their inferiors. One day Soremekum took her grandmother to the pharmacy and a young, teenaged White girl was working behind the counter. She gave her grandmother the medication and told her “Bessie, your medication is ready”. Her granddaughter responded and said “Her name is Mrs. Fannings”. Her grandmother said that that was the way they (Whites) were raised. This made Soremekun understand the unwritten rules of literacy that ruled the South. This is also why she uses her titles Dr. or Mrs. House-Soremekun, in order to give posthumously the respect that her grandmother was denied by Whites. This is what drove her to be academician she is today, in order to get respect that she deserves.
In a way, this represents the ambition that many Black women have to succeed. Many of the women that I speak to have very high expectations for themselves and accept nothing less than her best. We all have high goals, myself included, to be the very best in whatever field we choose. Many of us are used to being told that we exemplify the Black race, but are excluded from the broad spectrum of the human race. Whether we are aware of it or not, our ambition sends us to advanced schools to attain degrees that in turn give us titles. Maybe the reason why we are so ambitious is because we want respect and to be called by our name. When others recognize the sacrifice and hard work that it will take us to arrive at our respective destinations, we will all know that all struggle was worth it, because you are nothing without your name.
Jasmine Bryant
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