I learned from my "Other-mother"

In "Voices of Our Foremothers," author Sunny-Marie Birney tells us of her personal literacy journey.

       Birney begins to tell us, the reader of how her love and appreciation for education had grown to be.  Adopted at the age of 2 by parents she called Euro-Americans, Binery just felt as if she never completely fitted in.  It wouldn't be until her college years that she would begin her "journey home," and acknowledge the many women who have indeed helped her, both directly and indirectly.

       It was with the help of 4 distinctive professors at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, that allowed Binery to fully understand her own purpose for her life; of becoming an educator.  It was through these four nurturing, African-American, women professors that Binery received the proper care and teachings she, as a lost young black African-American needed.

 

                 "[T]hey were concerned overall with my mind,
                  body, and spirit, past present and future.
                  These women teachers cared about me and
                  held the same expectations for me as they had
                  for their own children... [they] 
             understood the power of caring"

       It is through the women educators commitments and cultural uplifting that we as young African-Americans should be inspired, as Sunny-Marie Binery had been.

~ A. Foster

Voices of Our Foremothers

Sunny-Marie Birney was adoped at the age of 2 by two Euro-Americnas. They provieded her with a good life and prevent her from being a "motherless child" any longer. She felt as if she was a long way from home until she attended College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. There she had black proffesors that that helped her become in touch with her African-American roots and had a major impact on her life. Her proffesors inspired her to become a teacher. Now there are more and more black teachers who are inspiring those who feel they don't belong anywhere else. Birney also made a point, that is the job of every generation to do its part and pass it on, so that the next generation can do great things.

Lessons From Down Under

In Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African-American Female Growing Up in Rural Alabama by Bessie House-Soremekun is about growing up in Alabama during the civil rights movement. House-Soremekun starts by talking about slaves and developing their literacy. She then goes on to describe her upbringing, which consisted of a large extended family. The family was strongly centered around gaining education as well as religion. As I got deeper into the reading I started to realize how much this sounded like my fathers upbringing. My dad was born in Alabama in 1950's and he also faced some similar experiences. House-Soremekun talked about the formal and informal literacies that were displayed during this time. The stories her great-grandmother told was one of the ways that many African-Americans learned due to the terrible education system. There was also a section about the race rules that were institutionalize. The institutionalization of "separate but equal" was a major part of her life. 
Growing up during the 1960's and 1970's was not easy. Being treated as second class citizens and receiving terrible treatment form not only the people in your community but the government as well is not right. In today's society we often take many things for granted. Some people have everything handed to them and never work for  anything and don't realize what it is like to experience this. Having a father that grew up during this time and being constantly reminded about what he went through has mad me appreciate everything I have.

-Takiyah Thomas

My Life As A Welfare Brat

Welfare is by far one of the most controversial issues among the American people, dealing with its government. I believe welfare is a needed benefit for some who actually need it. But what sets the standards of how bad or if some even need welfare check from the government? For those who need it; going through significant hard times, unemployment, health in jeopardy for children and themselves, then yes welfare should be provided. But how Larstella describes the abuse of welfare, and how some take it as a right to be given to them, is simply wrong. However, I do enjoy the journey and story that she shares about how she grew up and how she become somewhat a superstar of welfare. As i first began to read the blog, I was appalled at how Larstella approached these women, and held back nothing. She told of her opinion, and whatever excuse they could give of them being on welfare, she had a reason of how this wrong. When it tells the biography of her life, I can really respect how she came on to these women it getting them to realize the seriousness of what they were doing. It was amazing to me to learn of how some people abuse the welfare and government system. I can not say, welfare needs to be stopped, because I believe it is unfair to punish the whole for a few people's mistakes; however, some efficient plan has to began to stop the abuse of welfare.

- Socoya Douglas

Intersectionality of welfare

The welfare system simply isn't working. Sure, it provides money to families that are struggling with one or more parent unemployed and makes a very feeble attempt at helping these people acquire jobs but what does the welfare system really do? More specifically what does welfare mean to Black women? According to Golden, racism and sexism are built into the very core of the governmental institution. If you are Black, a woman, unemployed, and single, the system is not built for you. There is a stereotype that has been endorsed since the establishment of the welfare system in 1935; if you receive welfare then you are uneducated and unmotivated...basically you are a "mooch" that will never go anywhere or do anything productive. Instead of taking the time to find out what people's work backgrounds are and what their career goals are, the welfare system focuses only on getting a job fast. Granted having some sort of job is better than no job at all, the buck shouldn't stop there. People that receive welfare are people too and if the program truly seeks to get people off of welfare then it needs to pay attention to and validate people's literacies. Assuming that there are no ambitions or goals is wrong and needs to change. If the focus of the system was more "individual-oriented" then people would be able to get jobs that were sustainable and reliable and get off of welfare, hopefully, for good. It only takes one positive experience to set someone up for success for the rest of their lives and that experience could be in a guidance session/job training/GED program that the self-sufficiency coaches orchestrate. If the training of those individuals (SSCs) changed to exclude the biases (especially towards Black, single, female parents) and focus on helping the individual achieve their highest level of success (or at least develop goals) the system would have no choice but to change. 

"Nature's Muted Majesty"

In this week's reading we learn that practically anything and everyone is capable of teaching you something new. Although writer, Lille Gayle Smith, does not like to look back in her past and into her childhood, because of the constant reminders of how and where she worked, in the cotton field, she writes, and expresses how those exact times have shaped and molded her, and about her new found appreciation for them, in "Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I learned in a Cotton Field."  Smith tells us of the "memories of [the] repetitive, back-breaking work" that was her summer job, and how before she had taken a "Black Women's Literacy" class, she had only referred to it to inform others on how far she had come and what she overcame (Smith 38).  She tells us of how this class brings her to the realization that it was indeed that same "drudgery," she had despised, formed something unique in not only her, but in Black women as a whole.


                   "[D]ue to interrelationships of race, gender
                    and identity, Black women have not been
                   expected to adhere to the dominant culture's
                   stereotype of femininity, and... because slave
                  women were exploited, they [have] developed
                   greater independence and self-reliance than
                   their nonslave counterparts." (Smith 41).


As Smith continues to reflect on a past that she once condemned, she comes to realize that, that experience has "had a positive and profound impact" on her life, the lives of others, and they way she sees the world. 

~ A. Foster

What is Hidden

In reading Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field by Lillie Gayle Smith I noticed how working in the cotton field was tied into an everyday encounter. In the beginning it is very evident that Smith did not like talking about her experiences in the field. 



Smith then begins to talk about professors and the sexist attitude displayed. She gives the example that then a man would answer a question and it would be considered "gospel and complimented"for its "accuracy," while when a woman answered a question it was constantly rebutted and a male student would be asked to "confirm it." This caused some of the women  to drop the class which made Smith raise the question, "Why don't they resist this behavior?" Then it came to her that they did resist in their own way. Instead of sitting around and being told their answers weren't good enough they could go where their opinions would be respected. Smith then equates this to working in the fields. Picking cotton was something that both men and women could do and not raise an issue (Smith 39).


To me I view it as a women is able to work just as hard if not harder to but yet her opinion is not valuable. Of all the lessons that were taught to Smith during her time in the field this one struct me the most. How can you work along side someone and not even consider their opinion. This injustice is not acceptable.

-T Thomas