Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Women Peer Counselors

Robin Wisiniewski says that in order to be an influence in others lives you have to be literate. You have to be literate in order to make a change in the world. In order to state your opinions and say what you want changed, you have to know what you are talking about. Wisiniewski says that a literate black woman would be able to state her opinions and her voice would be heard because she knows what she is talking about.

In 1997 she created a peer literacy group for college students with disabilities, from low-income families, and first generation to attend college. It was a counseling program that taught counseling skills as well as techniques that address self-paced instruction, emotional factors with conflicts, and reading skills. The first four counselors she hired agreed that the counseling is the process of setting goals and objectives. They believed students were individuals full of potential and had a diverse set of strengths. It will be a two way teaching because they believe the students are talented and are teachers too. 

The counseling was to set a personal identity for the students. The program was built to help those with low self esteem while instilling new knowledge as well.

I think this was a good idea for a program because it didn't just teach the students new skills like a tutoring session. They actually got to express themselves and have someone listen to them. Unlike when you go to a Doctor they try to diagnose you with a medical problem, but this program actually built the students self esteem up and helped them through everyday situations. This program was a good thing to have.

Voices of Our Foremothers

Our African American foremothers have played a significant role in our lives.  What they have done and taught has been passed down and helped shaped the way current African American women grow and develop.  In her younger years, Birney didn’t have the access to this leadership and establishment with her white parents.  As a result she felt “motherless”.  While in college she found her long lost mother.  Her professors impacted her life with their close relationship, their caring nature, and ability to allow Birney to become an independent thinker.  Since they helped her enhance her knowledge, she was inspired to do the same for the black community.  “My professors modeled not just exemplary teaching, but also a commitment that uplifted and helped transform myself, and in turn, the African American community” (Birney 50).  It is imperative to be a leader for others, yet it is essential to be a servant for others as well.  One cannot act as if they are better than others, but be on the same level.  This goes along with the relationship between a teacher and their student.  Together they should grow and learn from each other.  Knowledge is more than repeating and memorizing facts.  Learning is being able to expand your mind and think for yourself.  Birney believes that her college professors have given her that opportunity to do so. 

Birney goes on to describe how our foremothers carried the torch of education. Black women have a history of having schools and organizations that implement the importance of education, and teaching children in a way that affects the mind, body, and spirit. For Birney, this type of excellence encouraged her to believe that noting is impossible. Not only was it encouragement for her, but also permission to do the same for generations to come. These foremothers have served as mother to children who seemed motherless by providing education that focused on multiple literacies. They understood conquering oppression, belittlement, and dehumanization through a connected and unified way. They interlocked and created a power that has provided opportunity for Black women to lead and teach in the same manner. Birney's life has been impacted on a great deal because of the women that stood before us. Their strength to teach and learn from one another gave Black women a torch to carry on.

Birney, Sunny-Marie. "Voices of Our Foremothers:Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Women Educators." Readers of the Quilt. ED. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton P., Inc., 2005. Print.

Voices of Our Foremothers

     In the first part of Birney's passage, she gives background of her childhood, of how she was adopted. She explains how she felt like a "motherless child" who is "a long way from home" (Birney, 49). Birney explains how she was adopted by two people of European descent and couldn't quite find a connection between herself and them. It wasn't until she began her undergraduate education at the College of Wooster did she find a connection between herself and a woman of color. There were three, Black, female professors that Birney encountered that influenced her to become a teacher and develop the "power of caring" (Birney, 50) towards others. She describes the relationship between herself and the professors as a maternal one. They were her mothers who "cared not only about [her] academic work and the adjustments [she] was making at the collegiate level, but they were overall with [her] mind, body, and spirit, past, present, and future" (Birney, 50). Birney continued with a connection to the Diaspora and history by saying that she "celebrates in the lives of African-American women educators who came before [her]" (Birney, 51).

    Service described by Birney is in the same sense as the servants of Jesus Christ. Meaning that a person is best at serving others than leading others, "such beliefs, are the very elements that distinguish true teaching as an art of service" (Birney, 51). Therefore, a teacher must use what she knows to "present information in such a way that students can verbally express themselves and become intrinsically empowered..."(Birney, 51). The collaboration between student and teachers is significant because it creates authentic thinking, meaning that with the assitance of the teacher, the student can think critically on their own.

     There are many important Black women who came before us and Birney explains how significant they were especially in her life, by "establishing independent schools, church-affliated Sabbath schools, and/or teaching in schools supported by Black and White philanthropic groups" (Birney, 53). Also, she describes that without the hard work in education by Mary Church Terrell, Anna Julia Cooper, Mary McLeod Bethune, Emma Wilson and many more, opportunites would be limited.

    Providing an chance and place for generations to come is highly important. Birney evaluated the contributions Black, female educators have made an impression on her life. From feeling like a motherless child to become a doctoral student, Birney has been through it all but with the help and support of the Black women before her. Everyone is a role model, regardless of if they think they are or not. Be a leader and provide those younger a great and positive example to follow.

   

Leesons From Down Under

This reading was about an African Amereican woman, Bessie House-Soremekun, growing up in Lanett, Alabama and learning different forms of literacy after the Civil rights Movement. She starts off talking about literacy being impacted by written and unwritten rules of behavior from behavior in Southern Society. Then she starts talking about the Civil Rights Movement and the events that took place were only the beginning of possibilities that were on their way to come. For example, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which later led to Affirmative Action which resulted in the opportunity for minorities, women and disabled to work. 

Also, since her childhood part of her literacy was interwoven with religion being that she grew up in the Methodist Church. She grew up learning how to read and understand the Bible and helped her understand issues regarding morality and what a morally constituted life should be growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. She was also ahead of her class but because of her mother's refusal to let her skip a grade she remained with the kids in her age group, because her mother believed "a child's intellectual and emotional development would proceed at an appropriate pace."
Ms. Bessie then goes on to talk about Formal and informal literacy which is "the various types of knowledge and knowing that is acquired through formal educational modes and activities." This section of the reading talks about integrating the schools and how black education was very much inferior to that of white. Blacks were ignored and were not considered worthy of inclusion. This had a negative impact on the attitude and self esteem of African American people. All they had to really call their own were the stories that were passed on from generation to generation.
Last but not least, Bessie talked about the Race Rules. This instituted the seperate but equal or Jim Crow Laws. Blacks had seperate restrooms and were not able to dine in public places. Also, whites did not have respect for blacks in the community. Whites insisted blacks call address them by Mr. or Mrs. but no matter the age of the black person, the whites addressed them by their first name. Even experiencing these events Bessie never gave up she still went on a quest to find her literacy.


Bessie House-Soremekun

None of this is new to me but it still triggers some feelings and empathy for those African Americans in that time period. Also, my empathy goes out to those going through such discrimation and hatred today because I know such behaviors still exist today. I know that in order to go through events such as the Civil Rights movement and slavery you have to be a strong person and because we as African Americans have lived through it and is still able to come out and tell our just stories shows how powerful we truly are. We are not as illiterate and inferior as we were made out to be.

Black And On Welfare by Sandra Bolden

              There are many people in our society today that need financial help.  However, when a single black mother comes into the building to be out on welfare, she is immediately stereotyped and looked down upon. “Unfortunately, our perception are that Black women on welfare have no interest in working and prefer staying at home rather than obtaining employment and providing for their families” (28).  The various women that have to go through the process to be on welfare have a difficult time.  They are belittled by those in charge and in some cases treated with little to no respect.   Even though some of the women that come through do not have much of an education, some do.  When they are not asked about previous schooling or important information that the authority should know, they feel disrespected because a lot of their background is only assumed and not known.  The women have to be placed in programs to enhance their skills to aid them in obtaining a job, yet many feel that most of these organizations are not very beneficial.  The opportunities that the programs prepare them for and are low-income jobs that barely provide for the participant and their family.            

Welfare has become another way of oppression for Black women. Society has its way of hindering its members, rather than pushing them to be more self-sufficient. Even in the times of funded training programs attempting to provide jobs, women were primarily given jobs that had no growth potential. Academic background has much to do with employment, and because of the assumption that the women lack such education; they were given the worse types of jobs. Golden encouraged individuals to go on and get the next education level to be accepted for better treatment. What society fails to realize it that these women have literacies of other things, such as family, home, and community literacy. Many of these women had special skills from taking care of their children and family members. Black women have also been influence to be literate in the community. Being in church and other social groups has helped Black women to gain leadership skills and a sense of belonging. These influence of the community, family, and home help women to improve academic skills. Therefore, caseworkers should not assume that there is a lack of skill or knowledge in that area. Gold feels that the act of assuming is a mere act of oppression and ignorance. Instead social workers and other parties involved should undergo a series of tests to determine the literacy of  the Black women. 

Golden, Sandra. "Black and on Welfare: What You Don't Know About Single-Parent Women." Readers of the        Quilt. ED. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton P., Inc., 2005. Print. 

Unearthing Hidden Literacy

        Lillie Gayle Smith grew up picking cotton in Alabama's Black Belt. The field, owned by her aunt, once belonged to a Confederate captian. When Smith would pick, there would be "10 to 12 people [picking] cotton in [her] aunt's field, varying between six to eight adults and four to six children" (Smith, 42).  In 2003, Smith began taking Black Women's Literacy for her graduate degree. Through the various readings and assignments, she realized how her early days as a cotton-picker, shaped who she is today.   Throughout her adulthod, Smith reminised how her days as a child picking cotton, and the memory furied her. The thought reminded her of slavery and the "bitter legacy" that was passed down from generation to generation of African-American people.

       In Smith's Black Women's Literacy course, she discovered the positives that came out of the negative, of cotton picking. One being that it led "to a deeper appreciation and understanding of past experiences and present perspectives" (Smith, 46). Also, her professors in school contributed to her acceptance of her past. Instead of being an authoritative figure, her teachers were advocates in her education. They gave her the space, time, and patience to give birth to her own ideas and articulte in her best ability. Smith declares that she would not have a "fully understanding of significant life experiences without the assistance of her classmates and professors.

     Through her classmates Smith recognized how a student, especially a female, can acknowledge oppression from the teacher.  Sometimes this awareness causes the student to "resist" the "practices" of the professor whether it is done "consciously" or not.  The example provided was when an instructor at a particular institution seemed to favor his male students more than the females.  He wouldn't accept their answers as "accurate" and would ask a male student to verify the female's response.  This was degrading to the female population in the class and many took action by not paricipating anymore, and some even left the course (Smith 39).

       Literature also played apart in Smith's education. From Crick Crack Monkey (Merle Hodge, 1970), Nervous Conditions (Dangaremba, 1988), Women's Ways of Knowing (Belenky, 1997), and All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (Fulghum, 1988). She analyzed and connected the readings to her own experiences. She discovered that what happened to her as a child was not a burdern or curse but reality of the current situation her people, African Americans, were in.  "In short, what i rediscovered in the cotton field of my youth is yet another testimony to the power of literacies learned beyond the  classroom"(Smith 46).



Works Cited

Smith, Gayle Lillie. "Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field." Readers of the Quilt. ED. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton P., Inc., 2005. Print.

Reel Women: Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films

Dowdy expresses that it is imperative for people in our society today to be knowledgeable about critical films in order to survive in the media world. Because the history of Black people hasn’t changed much over the last century, it is also imperative to have Black students knowledgeable about the Black character in critical films. This type of knowledge will allow students to connect themselves with their cultures and society. This understanding of Black films will give us an appreciation and respect for the things we take for granted as African American citizens. For example, many popular movies and books portray the lives of Black women and how they interacted with White societies.

 In many of the cases analyzed in this reading we see that many of the Black female roles have little to no educational background.  If they have had the privilege of finishing school they are still trumped by the whites and their political power.  The ending results of the films are almost always positive, yet by seeing them through film literacy and focusing on the black female, we notice that the messages they are representing are not always progressive.  In the movie “Eve’ Bayou”, none of the black women have jobs outside of the household.  This portrays the belief that women may not be capable of obtaining a job outside the house.  Also, in “Wit” the only black female actress in this movie does not even know the meaning of a simple word, yet she is a nurse.  This is an example of us getting a job outside the house, but we as black women, don’t seem knowledgeable enough to seem fit for that part.  It is pivotal for the audience to be capable to acknowledge these unspoken messages the characters depict so we can change them in the future and showcase our women in a more educated and successful light.

Educators find this as an avenue to build student/teacher relationships as they analyze details and evidence together. Because students view these movies so often, it is an easy way to learn Black Woman literacy. Looking at literacy through a lens, many professions in the media field require people to function in mainstream society, have verbal and communication skills, and able to read.  Students believe that literacy include many aspects of the media and connecting it to navigating through life.  “We can say that our pedagogy has moved beyond being critical to making constructive changes in the way that Black women are represented in movies and the way that critical analysts use such symbols to enhance their worldview”( Dowdy 179-180).  

Works Cited

Dowdy, Joanne. "Reel Women: Black Women and Literacy in Feature Films." Readers of the Quilt. ED. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton P., Inc., 2005. Print.