Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Women Peer Counselors

 
Thompson, Patricia M. "The Influence of Popular Culture and Entertainment Media on Adult  Education." Review. New Direction for Adult and Continuing Education (2007): 83-90.  10 Nov. 2010.
Walsh, Jennifer, and Monique Ward. "Magazine Reading and Involvement and Young Adults'  Sexual Health Knowledge, Efficacy, and Behaviors." Journal of Sex Research. 47.  (2010): 285-300. Print.Transformative learning is how we reshape our opinions, beliefs, and ways of thinking  as we previously understood them. Literacy is key when taking part in this process.  In order to transform our opinions and ways of doing things, we need to understand the ideology and root of why we have them.  As black women in a college setting, we must be strong, intelligent, and independent.  Upon entering college, we are exposed to a whole new way of thinking. 

In the time before college, individuals get surrounded by ideas and opinions of those family members and peers, college presents a new situation.  Generally throughout years in college, and individual will get introduced to a countless number of ideas, idealogies and ways of life, all of which have to be analysized.  Through this analyzation, the individual figures out exactly who he or she is.    The person enters a period of transformation depending on a number of choices.  The article written by Robin Wisniewski touches on the importance of peer counseling during this pivotal time in the student’s life.

Robin Wisniewski focuses on the necessity of familial interaction and individual identity and its influence on the college experience.  She hones in on the journey of Lauryn and Vania and how their comparatively different backgrounds made for different understandings of college life.  Basically, based on the spectrum of the students’ background the counselors had to tailor their regiment specific to the students’ needs.  We may be overwhelmed by the real life application of our knowledge.  Peer counseling is crucial among students because there is necessary guidance concerning identity, adulthood, and other college experiences.  It is both supportive and challenging to the ideas of the student body.  “In college literacy programs, we need to not only acknowledge a democratic philosophy, but also engage in the practice of leading a democratic curriculum. Democratic curriculum leadership is comprised of inquiry that is deliberative and multiperspective, includes the exposure of biases, and the necessary effort to create our own transformation as educators.” 

Black Women Leading the Classroom

In Voices of Our Foremothers: Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Women Educators, the author, Sunny-Marie Birney, writes about her personal experiences with her black female teachers and professors. These women had a great impact on her life, allowing her to be awakened after feeling out of place for the majority of her life because she was adopted by a white woman. She chose to study Psychology and African American studies with her professors leading her exploration of African-American culture.

Next, Birney goes on to explain the "Art of Service." She quotes Carter G. Woodson, stating,"The real servant of the people, then, will give more attention to those to be served. . ."(51). This quote shows the importance that the teachers played in her life, giving more attention to her than to themselves. She also refers to a liberal education, allowing for a student to learn information through "authentic learning." She find this style to be the most effective, feeling that education should surround around the student's development with the knowledge. 

She then goes on to describe the carrying and passing of the torch. By this, she is referring to the knowledge gained through education. She relays that the teachers should understand the student's need to be equipped with not only knowledge but also critical reading skills to allow them to face life outside of the classroom. She explains that the black female educators in her life impacted her greatly, leading her to not only cherish the "legacy of acadmic excellence" (55) but to also wants to share with others. She explains that the educational leaders truly served as her mothers, and inspired her to reach for goals that she didn't see herself capable of. 

I feel that this reading shows what a great impact black female teachers are making in the class room, showing a greater amount of care for the students. Through Birney's experiences in the classroom, we see what a great influence black women have made in the classroom with pure dedication. They have influenced their students to achieve new goals and develop greatly, which I think should be commended.

Black and on Welfare: What You Don’t Know About Single-Parent Women by Sandra Golden

Many Americans tend to frown upon welfare programs, but it’s not until you are introduced to the situation do you truly know and understand its value and system.  The welfare system was introduced during World War I and the Great Depression as means to support those unemployed and elderly.  Now welfare is known as an aid to needy families with dependent children was well.  The Department of Human services work to define the purpose of welfare as means to provide assistance to less fortunate families, end dependence of needy parents on government benefits, and prevent and reduce pregnancies out of wedlock.

It’s difficult to differentiate between those that need and use the welfare system and those that abuse it.  People abuse the system, but the system also abuses the people.  Many of those that work in the Department of Human services don’t necessarily think highly of those that come into the welfare office.  They seem to expect the worst.  Many of the African American women that need assistance may not have high academic literacy levels, but they do seem to be fluent among social literacies.  In fact it’s imperative that they know how to approach people and be socially sound in order to communicate with the Human Services Department.  “Although caseworkers are overworked and have high case loads, they must be required to recognize and respect the people they serve.”  The welfare programs are offered by the government to aid those who need assistance, but it’s essential that there is a mutual understanding of it’s purpose and the respect that it must exude in order for it to be successful.

Black Women & Welfare

This piece was very interesting to me. The author starts out by explaining an experience that she had on the Oprah show, arguing her point and then goes to further explain why she has established this view. She experienced first hand how people use welfare the wrong way and manipulate the government to set up a cushioned lifestyle, without work. The author chronicles her life, beginning at age 21. At this stage, she was introduced to welfare while living a fast life full of partying, promiscuity, and drugs. She learned that a pregnant woman can get a welfare check for three months to live on, but also make money selling Medi-Cal stickers to others. By doing this, she lived for a long time with no job and a care free life. Later, after having a baby she decided that she wanted to quit using welfare and form a healthy lifestyle for her daughter.


This article expands on how people misuse welfare and other things given to them. This can make it hard for people to do things on their own, because when things are given they are taken for granted. As stated in the writing, the "welfare brats" can form a sense of entitlement and feel that they do not have to work when they will be taken care of by the government. This is not a positive mindset, as many people work hard and should not have their money being wasted. I think that the author's point was that although it may be easier to take something that is given, it is better to work for it. Although she and her daughter might have lived well off of welfare, she still needed to keep working to improve their lifestyle and not let the sense of entitlement to government money get in the way. This ties back to black women and literacy, because I think as black women we are supposed to use or literacies to continue growing rather than to settle for what we are given.

Literacy in Disguise:: In the Shape of Cotten

In Lillie Gayle Smith's "Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I learned in a Cotton Field", she begins with a brief story of her background. She draws the image of herself as a young Black girl in Alabama during the summer of 1963 who, as opposed to picking cotton as she was accustomed to on days like this, was called in to watch TV by her mother to watch The March on Washington and, later, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream " speech. This event can be seen as one of the peaks of Smith's literary acquisition, as she watched and listened to the speech with "pride and joy".

Smith then transitions into her fall 2003 semester at a graduate University, in which she took up a course entitled "Black Women's Literacy". She explains that as a Black woman who had shamefully picked cotton as a child, prior to engaging in this course, Smith had refused herself of ever sharing this experience with those around her. However she eventually learned that this once shameful occupation (in a sense) had molded and shaped her literacy as a black woman. in relating to this passage on a more personal level, the mindset  she later developed in fact reminded me of that of a Spelman woman, or at least what the professors at Spelman are attempting to instill in us. The many empowering notions of recognizing our naturally inherited traits and literary attributes as Black women, the incentive to explore further the works taught to us in previously male dominated schooling establishments, and our seeking of confirmation in the form of likeminded women like ourselves are many elements that contribute to the outcome of our developing literacy. Smith also explains how her life experiences, along with the life experiences shared by professors and classmates, contributed to their acquisition of knowledge and awareness. 

Another interesting topic that  Smith discusses is that of female resistance, Black females especially. She uses the example of how a professor in one of the courses at her University neglected to acknowledge the thoughts and concepts shared by females within his class, without first consulting another male student in the classroom. Smith explains how although she could see how these women could be deemed as defeated or quitters in a sense by withdrawing  from the course, in turn they saw themselves as "challenged, inspired, and empowered" by this experience, in that it gave them the drive to search for a follow-up course. Because it can be scientifically stated that women often identify themselves "based on relationships with others", this negative relationship between the female students and their biased professor sprouted growth in these women to identify themselves as intellectuals beyond said professor's expectations.

-Tayla Fauntleroy

Seeing Beauty in all places

Ms. Smith, the author of Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field, creates a narrator who speaks of the effect of her once perseived negative past on her self understanding.  The narrator explores bits of her life and its effects on her appreciation to one specific aspect of her past, her experience picking cotton in the fields.  This piece of literature is viewed to me as a personal testimony.  The narrator speaks about her experience with teachers who attempted to negativly influence her understanding in certain classes.  She speaks of relations pertaining to Crick Crack Monkey, and how she understand knownledge construction.  The narrator speaks of a period of time when she did not have TV, but would get her entertainment from spending time outside in the fields with elders listening to stories and wise lessons about present life and life of the past.  They were able to "envision" a better life in the future; their stories were always full of "hope" and completely void of "despair" (Smith, 44). Many aspects of her knowledge construction and personal ideas she expressed.  The narrator touches on the self confidence imparted in young Black girls at a young age; this self confidence that tends to be very unique.  She speaks about several views of Black women being portrayed through the media.  The narrator then makes a connection back to her experiences in the cotton fields.  She explains how this aspect of her life was once one that was kept closed and very explained, but then a certain ephiphany was explained.  She goes into how women are connected.  This basically means that women tend to connect with situations, people, and especially aspects of nature on a level much deeper than that which is normally understood.  She feels as though throught the teachings and connections that she made during her time working on the cotton field, it has contributed to a unique part of her.

Jessica Robinson

Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films

 Dowdy acknowledges the progression Black women have made in the film industry.  When I think about Black women in the media of a predominantly white culture I a strong, successful female lead isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.  We have been tormented by the media depicting images solely of lower class low-literate women.  “Commercial film has trained us to expect a reality where Black life is included as an incidental fact in storytelling of a White scriptwriter.  Understanding the way Black women fit into the schema of White society, I remind my students, is another kind of literacy code that we must unpack when we view films by mainstream filmmakers (Dowdy 174).”  It’s imperative to remember who controls the industry and that however they choose to display black women is how it will be.

Dowdy focuses on the roles and how each woman is perceived in the films.  She also discusses the literacies they fulfill.  In “Passion Fish”, Alfre Woodward plays a black nurse who is the caretaker for a white woman.  It is shown that she must work for the white woman in order to support herself and if that isn’t enough along the way she looses her merit, as she was never certified to be a nurse.  In “Eve’s Bayou” we witness Lynn Whitfield as a black domestic as all the roles of women outside the household are underrepresented.  In “The Color Purple”, Whoopi Goldberg plays a powerless female objectified by her cruel husband. At the beginning she can neither read nor write., but as the movie progresses and she acquires these literacies she becomes a stronger woman.

I wonder the opportunities these women might have, had they acquired more literacies.  Might they have been more independent, more successful, or overall more accepting and appreciative of themselves.  Literacy allows you to gain economic, political, religious, social, and educational knowledge.  Having a diverse group of them makes for a more pleasant lifestyle where you can create your won opinions rather than only having one option, to accept the information presented.

Going Against the Grain

During the section called "Schools of Their Own" in the piece of literature Going Against the Grain, the history of how literacy was perceived was defined.  The article explains parts of the background of Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles and major contributions to Spelman College.  This part of the article then goes into detail about the successes of many of the first graduates of Spelman College.  It is interesting to know that even though the early graduates, after college, entered a world where the expectations were much lower than those of now, they succeeded in many ways.  Clara Howard was sent to Spelman College by her father, graduated from the college in 1887, and began her missionary work in Africa.  She excelled greatly in this way, but had to put her work on hold because of the scare of disease.  

As a young, black woman of the 21st century, I would love to experience even simply visiting Africa in some way or another.  There are a number of opportunities to do so, but Ms. Howard was brave enough to go against the bounds of her time and spread the word through her religious works.  

Another section called "Coming to Voice: Maria W. Stewart," explained the struggles of a widowed woman who toils with the loss of her husband, lacking financial stability, and discrimination of her time.  This section explains the inner-workings of a few of the well known abolitionists of the 1800s.  Ms. Steward attempts to stand alone while presenting issues of race and gender discrimination, but soon gets shunned.  The society around her did not see it place for a woman to be speaking out on the issues in absence of a man's help.
The compilation of all the different readings in this section provides a certain insight about different aspects of the time that sometimes gets overlooked.  It is necessary to see as many aspects as possible in order to get a more accurate view.  


-Jessica Robinson

Stuggling to Make the Grain into Butter

The section entitled Charlotte Forten and the Port Royal Commission in Jaqueline Royster's "Going Against the Grain" in my eyes starts an entirely new perspective on the struggles that Africans in America have faced. Of course throughout the entire piece, and in the many repetitive readings like it, the empowerment of us as African Americans and women especially is emphasized,  in focusing on how important literacy is. But being the type of person that I am, historical context as opposed to mere opinions sits better with me because I tend to think critically. Before telling the story of Charlotte Forten, Royster gives reference to the Civil War, and basically stresses that because we were still not equal in the eyes of our "superiors" (i.e. former slave owners), even after the Emancipation Proclamation, we now fought in the "crusade against slavery" to be seen as human beings. What caught my attention was the mention of the political side to the war, i.e. that it was once a battle for economic power over southern agricultural resources (though at the time African slaves were a "resource" themselves).   


Before the Emancipation Proclamation, yet during the heat of the war, a battle between the Union and Confederate soldiers took place on Hilton Head Island on November 7, 1861. The Union victory brought about more than a Confederate loss of southern ports, but more importantly a loss of "contraband". This "contraband", now belonging to the U.S. Treasury Department, consisted of 50 plantations worth of African men, women, and children; 10,000 newly freed people without housing, substinence, or the education necessary to  acquire these things on an alien planet. With this, the Port Royal Experiment uggested by Edward L. Pierce began, which provided government assistance to freed "contraband", or former enslaved persons. Also with this experiment, claims were to be made on land and critical resources lost after the battle as well. The jobs of missionaries during this time was to cultivate those African-Americans who were now free. And although northern missionaries did believe that Black people deserved freedom and educational opportunities, they still failed to see them as equal human beings. 


This was the part that got me. How were white northerners who had a sense of superiority embedded in them throughout the years of slavery (that technically were still continuous at the time) expected to "cultivate" and improve the lives of those who they had been previously taught to oppress and conquer? Though they were "passionately committed" to the cause of beginning the process of cultivation, they were still nevertheless White. In further reading this text, it became apparent to me that Charlotte Forten had the same views in mind. She understood what it meant to be dedicated to her people in times of hardship and mistreatment, and aside from her socioeconomic stature, she never forgot who or where she came from. 

Going Against the Grain

My grandma always said to me “you better get your lesson child!”  After reading “Literacy as a Mandate for Action” and “Literacy Opportunities after 1800” in Royster’s “Going Against the Grain”, I have a whole new appreciation for that saying.  It was prohibited to teach slaves how to read and write in efforts to keep them completely disconnected form the rest of the world.  When they were first granted their emancipation, “African Americans understood the implications of literacy and learning in political, economic, and social progress. Royster 123” The root of this idea seems to dwindle among our culture in that we no longer pay close attention to the crucial topics at hand thus displaying our lack of literacy in these areas.

When our ancestors were transported to the Americas from the homeland we embodied our own native language.  It’s not that we were illiterate we just didn’t know the popular literacy that was necessary at the time in order to advance.  There were those who believed that slaves should be educated.  Slaveholders believed that it would improve the efficiency of the slaves, while social reformers of the oppressed, and Christians believed in their education as well.  Those who did advocate for the education of African Americans also had a strong belief in that the education should be limited so to not give the slaves any type of power over them.

Literacy has its costs.  While we may yearn for the opportunity to become literate it truly depends on the content and context of that literacy.  Whites allowed the slaves some literacy in order to take them out of their so-called “barbaric ways” and convert them into Christians who know and understand the law and the language.  Whites did all they could to strip slaves of their own identities and literacies and forced them to become part of the newfound society completely extinguishing their native literacies.  These circumstances make you rethink the cost of literacy and whiter it’s worth the trouble.

Literacy is about expressing yourself in your own way, not about conforming or doing what is expected of you.  Go against the grain.  By the 19^th century there was a large group of literate African Americans where the ability to read was more developed than the ability to write.  How ironic that our oppressors are able to once again have control.  We have the ability to read their literature, but don’t have the necessary writing tools in order to give a response and our own opinion.

           Catherine Williams Ferguson a former slave formed her own religious educational school to help orphaned children.  It wasn’t until African Americans began to form their own schools did we have control over our literacies.  It’s important that we appreciate all that our ancestors have endured so that we may have the benefit of those literacies allowing us to express our true opinions.

Wood grows in a way that makes it easy to cut in one direction, the grain.  Going against the grain is when you go the difficult route and cut in the other direction.  It is going against the norm and in our case, developing literacy despite those who attempted to keep us uneducated and ignorant.

African American Women Going Against the Grain

In Jaqueline Royster's piece "Going Against the Grain", Royster describes the understandings of African American women from an early stage. Royster states, "Since the beginning of Africans' lives in the Americas, African American women have been encumbered by racist, sexist, class-bound ideologies" (109). She goes on to explain that these adversities lead to the rise of a fight for women to question and demand justice and power. African American women understood how life was in the United States, and also understood the power of literacy in changing this. I think that this understanding was important, because by fighting for their rights they were also fighting for the rights of all African Americans. I feel that it is refreshing to know that through out all of the abuse that was faced, African American women have played a big role in the demand for our rights since the very beginning.


Royster goes on to describe a "Spirit of Activism" (114) which was developed by black women. Women, such as Belinda and Lucy Terry, were showing resilience as they fought for their rights through the legal system and through literature. These women, among others, fought for their rights and set an example to others to do the same. Terry fought for her rights and took defeats, but did not give up. Eventually she was able to succeed, showing that it was possible for others to do the same as she lead by example.


I find that the fight by women for rights to be a crucial part of our progress from the days of slavery to now. Although women as a whole are not recognized as much as we deserve, we have been a large part of the movement. More commonly known women like Harriet Tubman are only a small fraction of the women of this time period to do the same thing. Roster describes that Benjamin Franklin "recognized the importance of standing up for principles, whether the effort results in immediate success or not" (121). Women like Lucy Terry who fought for their beliefs set examples for many others to do the same. Even her defeats helped us get where we are today in some way. This gives me the desire to stand up for what I believe and to fight for my rights. I feel that the work of these women who have come before us needs to be continued. We should understand where we come from, and use our literacy to continue to move us forward.

Response to "To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation

In the literature piece titled “To Be Black, Female, and Literate:  A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation, Leonie C. R. Smith lays out the struggles that have shaped her throughout her life.  Ms. Smith explains her many personal struggles starting with the loss of her mother at the age of five.  It seems to be a pattern in Ms. Smith life that results in her making realizations about herself and the world around her.  She undergoes many struggles that are typical in Black America mixed with much more personal issues that she had to cope with.


It was important that Leonie C. R. Smith explains the beginning of her life and the background of her family.  She has always been quick to make the necessary changes in her life in order to cope with those negative situations around her that she could not control.  The reader is able to understand that Leonie Smith is not, by any means, weak at heart or easy to give up on herself or her dreams.  Negativity shown in the beginning of the piece presented by the deceiving woman who wanted her grandmother’s land, simply sparked the unresting  determination in Ms. Smith and her family.  She was driven to be the best and succeed; this lets the reader know that in order for Ms. Smith to even be swayed by any such racism later in her life, it must have been outrageous.

Ms. Smith shares all aspects of the racism that was presented to her in her journey of success.  “The difference in learning styles and the context of my literacy education were never taken into account” (Dowdy, 189).  This part of the piece allows the reader to understand a major flaw in Ms. Smith’s education (and most educational systems) and its rigid structure and lack of accommodation.  In Ms. Smith’s life, if all else failed, as far as her issues with the students in school and self acclimation to her new school, she should have been able to display her educational talent in school.  This was not true because her intelligence was stifled by testing that limited the students to not take advantage of their various learning styles.


Finally in the literary piece, Ms. Smith leaves the reader with hope for her success to complete her Ph.D.  It is easy to see the change in the person that Ms. Smith became through her hardships during her educational process.  As she pressed forward, she was presented not only with new challenges, but with those that she had not ever experienced or ever knew existed.  This literary piece should be an inspiration to anyone who reads it and understands that life literacy comes through experience, trials, and tribulations.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION: 

Dowdy, Joanne Kilgore. Readers of the Quilt. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2005. 189. Print. 

[NOTE: Italicize "Readers of the Quilt"]

PARENTHETICAL CITATION: 

(Dowdy 189)

Black Women:: Black Literature

In Joanne K. Dowdy's piece which she entitles "Black Women/Black Literature", she conducts an interview with aWhite woman named Christina McVay, who happens to be an English professor in the department of Pan-African studies. In her interview, McVay proceeds by saying that she undertook this field of study and chose to teach in said field because of her grave interest in Black literature and culture itself. McVay had always been intrigued by other languages, particularly those she majored in during her undergraduate studies at Kent State University (German and Russian), but had found "Black English" to be quite interesting as well, because of the pieces of literature she had read conducted by Black women. She explained that while conducting her classes as a White woman in front of a Black class, she herself was a student at times, in that she took something from each students perspective. When comparing her teachings done in these Black literary classes to that of her White classes, in fact, McVay says that her White english classes are "boring" and "deadly dull". Christina McVay finishes her discussion on her outlook on teaching English in the Pan -African department by saying that every morning, she wakes up knowing that she is "going to do something all day long that [she] enjoys"

In reverting back to the piece "To Protect and Serve": African American Female Literacies by Elaine Richardson, Black women are, by nature, nurturing and protective beings who seek knowledge, with which they attempt to share with those of their culture. These qualities are what Christina McVay witnessed during her teachings and studies of Black female literature. What mainly stood out to me among many enlightening thoughts conjured up by McVay was the line that read "...I've learned to respect our elders instead of worshipping youth, to respect our past and tradition instead of being obsessed with the future and the idea of progress." These are the values that we as black people, and Black women especially, should continue to hold dear to us, and share with those of different genders and races alike. With that in mind, we should also hold dear our "Blackness" as McVay calls it. With this, I mean that terms others describe as slang and "Black English" should not be forgotten, and should be valued because in it holds culture and tradition. Of course one should know when the appropriate time of usage is, which is obviously not in an English essay or college paper, but amongst like minded people who comprehend the dialect and feel a relation to your thoughts without having to depict them as simply slang. The literature of Black people in general along with the way it is comprehended by the world will forever be a debated, criticized and judged, however it is up to those of the Black community to make these discussions positive. 

response to Elaine Richardson's "To Protect and Serve": African American Female Literacies

Elaine Richardson's "To Protect and Serve" takes us inside of the African American female perspective.  She gives us the inside scoop on how we perceive ourselves as well as how people of both our own and different races view us.  As we take a closer look at how black females have been oppressed over the years, it is crucial that we study our own lives and apply them to the context of the discussion.  Richardson touches on a plethora of topics that most black females can relate to as she tackles social, cultural, and political literacies. She assists us in making the connection between the struggles of the females who came before us and the conditions we endure today.  

As black women, we are not only hindered by our race, but by our gender.  We must fight our way through the crowd in order for our opinions to be heard.  And when we do finally make it to the podium, the front of the class, the stage of life, we better say something worth listening to.  "I've had several undergraduate educational experiences and several graduate ones, where because I articulated my opinion through storytelling, influenced by my Black and female sociocultural orientation, my thoughts were not acknowledged or even seriously engaged. (Richardson p. 696)" We have something to prove.  In order to even think about being included in situations of higher learning, we must do an exemplary job of conveying ourselves to the population.  In order to earn the respect of others we must show that we are worthy.  We  must be confident in the fact that we are worthy of learning and deserve the knowledge and the fruits of the world.  

I often find myself searching far and wide for places where I can exercise and share my knowledge in a context where it will be appreciated and taken into account.  It is important that I be selective when choosing a place as a safe haven.  A place where my words and ideas can be respected and responded to truthfully and equally.  While it is necessary to have a place where you feel comfortable, it is always crucial to take risks and step out and challenge yourself.  There is nothing worse than becoming your own oppressor.  Our lives are so precious and there is no time to waste pitying ourselves.  Richardson opens our eyes to the struggles of African American females in society. Now we must take what we've learned and apply it to our own lives so that we as an oppressed people may rise.