Hey Black Child

Protect and serve lead me to think of a poem called Hey Black Child. In this poem the writer is asking a black child what they know about themselves and asking if they know that there are infinite possibilities to what they [the child] could do. However without the proper discipline the black child could not strive and be successful because they would fold at the pressure of the real world. This is why single black mothers seem to show a tougher love than emotional one, it is because they want their children to be able to grow up and be able to strive in this tough discriminatory world. In other types of homes such as white two parent homes their may be a different type of upbringing one of a more gentle loving style. However I think your upbringing and the type of love a parent should give to their children should be based on the type of trials and obstacles they will have to face in the real world. If you black children are brought up to have tough skin and not wear their emotions on their sleeves then when they are tossed into the real world it wont be such a difficult transition for them to face. Yes, it will still be a difficult struggle to face being black successful and literate in this world but they will have a sturdy foundation to stand on because they would be able to answer yes to the question in the poem Hey Black Child when it asked “Hey black child do you know who you are, who you really are? Do you know you can be what you want to be when you try to be what you can be? Do you know you can do what you wanna do when you try to do what you can do?”

Spelman College A Choice to Change the World

In Robin Wisniewski’s Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Peer Counselor’s, she speaks about having to change her way of thinking in order to change her mindset and her way of learning. This part of the text made me think to one of the first things I learned when I arrived at Spelman. During orientation week, the first- year class was introduced to many aspects of college life but one of the things that impacted me the most was one of the meetings we had with the ADW staff. We had been given an assignment to read an excerpt from a literary piece called Pedagogy of the Oppressed in which the author speaks about the banking concept. This concept basically shows how students just become storage containers taking in what is given by the teacher without questioning any facts given to them or creating their own thoughts about the knowledge they are obtaining. It then speaks about the way to change this situation is for the student teacher relationship to be one in which both parties are allowed to learn and to teach. As we spoke about this in the meeting we learned that at Spelman College they want students to be free thinking women who are able to take what they are given and decipher their own thoughts out of it. In order to do so we would each have to change our way of thinking and learning so that we could gain a different mindset and perspective on the things we learn. This would inevitably help us all to transform into better thinking, speaking, and learning young women. It would also help us to be literate in the way that Vania talks about in her quote from Wisniewski’s text:

[Being a literate Black woman means] that I can speak and what I have to say will be heard because I know what I am talking about. If I don’t know about a subject, I want to find out more. If I literally don’t know about something I can’t talk about it. I can’t voice an opinion let alone defend it or be for it because I don’t know anything about it. If you’re ignorant of everything that’s going on and you have no idea and you’re just walking around, then how can you say, we need change, or we need this and that? No. You need to be educated so you can be this influence so you can help others. So you can go out and not be somebody’s quota. So you can go out and be able to stand and be who you are and also be a great influence.

At Spelman we are taught how to obtain and maintain this kind of literacy. Once we have it we are able to live by and uphold our school’s new tagline. Spelman College- A Choice to Change the World.
Jasmine Nicole Robinson

I'm Every Woman

When I read the title of the article “To Protect and to Serve” the first thing that came to my mind was the military opposed to the war, our President verses our nation, and lastly Black Women in our Society. I thought about our past readings and knew that somebody was being put on a pedestal. There are characteristics that could relate to our reading and instantly I knew that black woman played a vital role in our society. Elaine Richardson claims that, “Woman is the child’s first teacher, who protects it even in her womb and begins to socialize it”. I agree with this quote to a certain extent because I’ve always learned that mothers become connected to their child when it’s in her womb. From the little kicks and growing physically and emotionally while experiencing motherhood, I always thought of Motherhood as being a journey itself. Then I think about the irresponsible mothers and I almost don’t agree with Elaine Richardson. You have to always remember poorly behaved women that neglect their children by not having any respect for self. They are ghettoized and exploited as black women who are badly behaved.

Metaphorically speaking, you never see the “big picture” of what a positive Black woman stands for because there are always commercials that interrupt the movie. You have you white women, blond hair blue eyes that make out life to we know to be Glitter and Gold. My mother always told me that “Everything that glitters ain’t gold. Mother’s role are conflicting when it comes to how their daughters future. They generally always want the best for their daughters, and in most situations they want to give their daughters what they never had growing up. It’s hard when mothers never had their fathers in their lives, and then the relationship with their child’s father is not the best. They feel like they have to do more, give more and give fewer expectations for their “bastard” child. I do not with the way that our society views the single parent, where she is always the crazy “Babymomma”, who ruins every relationship that the father tries to have in the future. The term “Mammy” for instance, is supposed to portray a beasty black woman who runs the household almost as a household slave. She does the cooking, cleaning, catering, and is usually unattractive.

Elaine Richardson relates her life to a famous black writer whom I’ve always enjoyed reading her story The Coldest Winter Ever. Sistah Soulja is a powerful individual that has become an inspiration to me through her writing because I could almost relate and visualize her story. One thing that stuck out in my mind was when Elaine Richardson talked about Marva Collins who exploited Black styles and ways with words to boost student comprehension and achievement. My little brother went to a school named after “Marva Collins” Preparatory School. It was called the M.C.P.S. They were forced to change their name, which remains the name the school today to Milwaukee College Preparatory School because Marva Collins felt that the students were not representing her name positively. This was a very historical change in our society because it almost was like students were being ripped from their identity, especially for the ones who had graduated and the ones that were actually positively representing the black style of Marva Collins.I admire the way that Spelman portrays our black women. They name dorms and buildings around our campus that have been standing tall for many years now. They host pageants that crown our Spelman sisters to be brilliant and resilient. The only way that we can change what society is trying to bestoy on us is for each and everyone of us to protect and serve in our country.

"The Image"

“Music videos, television talk shows, news shows, newspapers, and tabloids show [Black women] one-sided and oft times disfigured representations of African American females: pulsating genitals, hood rats, “professional sisters alienated in corporate America or the academy, low- income single mothers, falling stars.” (Richardson 677) This image that Black women hold is the basis of Elaine Richardson’s article, “To Protect and Serve”: African American Female Literacies. I find it sad that I know the Black Woman to be strong, dignified, and a hardworking but society looks at the Black woman as being illiterate, immortal, and dependent. Though I have witnessed Black women who fit the stigma that society holds them bound to, to label every Black woman in this category would be incorrect. Because this is such a heavy stigma against Black Women, it makes life and success very hard. Specifically, Elaine Richardson speaks about plugging in the terms “black girls” and “young black girls” into a Yahoo search engine. The links that came up were pornography sites and various pop-ups of graphic sexual activity. When reading this in her article, I was not too surprised at the results. I am very aware of how Black women are viewed in society; thus, this is one of the reasons why I chose to attend Spelman College. Spelman focuses on developing the entire woman. The support that I receive from my Spelman sisters motivates me to strive for success. Spelman really centers on building a foundation because they understand that, as black women, society is not in our favor. For this and other reasons, Spelman College prepares black women for the “real world”. I believe that it is imperative to have institutions and organizations like Spelman that focus on developing the Black woman. It is time for Black women to change the stigma! -Daria Clegg

Being A Black Female

In the exert by Elaine Richardson she explored the role of African American women and their desire to protect and serve their families along with the people they encounter on a day to day basis. To those looking in from the outside it may seem as if African American women tend not to have that motherly love and bond with their children, but for those who actually experience it know it better as “tough love”. Tough love is a trait based down from generation to generation by African American females. It is not a characteristic of mothers as much as it is an inherited trait of African American women. African American mothers tend to pass this quality on generation after generation as a result of being what they were taught and the only form of motherly characteristics they know. A mother and her child share a connection in which only they truly understand. African American children learn more from their mothers than they will any teacher. As a result, Elaine Richardson proclaims many African American students do not go to their teachers for help as they think it will be perceived as deficiency on their mother’s part. Mothers play a major role in the development of young African American girls. Young African American girls desire to be just like their mothers, therefore take the motherly bond out into the world with them. In the classroom they tend to want to help the teacher and maintain order within the classroom. African American females have been socialized to help protect and serve. This survival strategy encompasses helping people both inside and outside the African American community; in essence they feel less threatened. African American females are socialized to function as messengers, caretakers, and enforcers. While instilled with the knowledge taught from home from their mother, African American females have the ideal instilled in their minds they are to “impress or satisfy the white man”. Despite of what they do or how they portray themselves to others, African American females always stay true to themselves, their roots, and their heritage. They remember in the long run where they came from but keep in sight where they want to go.
- Brittney L. Echols

It’s Our Duty To Give Back

In continuation to the blog earlier this week, Sunny-Marie Birney prolongs with her personal dedication to the gratification she returns to those who paved the path she travels today. Birney explains the gift of learning and excelling as an act of community service. If someone takes the time to teach you and be an asset in your life, it is then your duty to in return do the same and give back to the community. As she reflects on her personal life she evaluates how monumental the contributions of African American female educators, both past and present, have influenced the lives of each student they have encountered. She goes on to express the legacy of academic excellence is one that she will cherish for both herself as well as secure her feet when she teaches. For example, her dedication to build relationships with her students based upon sharing, caring, and nurturing. African American female teachers have the power to be mothers to children who lack that parental figure at home if they simple take the time to care. All it takes is for one teacher to see potential within a student and have the student bring out the best in him or herself. Once they appreciate the wonder from within themselves they will soar to a greater height. When African American female educators take you under their guidance, you become part of a collective group of women who historically have mothered countless millions. The power of knowing, interacting, and studying with African American females is a miraculous experience. Seeds are deposited within their spirit that they in return are able to deposit in the lives of others as they teach what they were taught. She also explains how one does not have to be in the traditional classroom in order to touch the lives of someone in ways never imagined possible. Just make an everlasting impression that they will never forget.
-Brittney L. Echols

It Takes A Village To Raise A Child

It has always been a common tradition amongst African Americans to say “it takes a village to raise a child”, in “Voices of Our Foremothers: Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Women Educators” by Sunny-Marie Birney, her personal life story is a direct correlation of this infamous quote. She explains how at the age of two she was adopted, being the first experience she encountered where the African American community took action to raise a child of the village. As her life progressed, up until high school she only encompassed four African-American female teachers. Although they treated her with care as if their own child, it was not until college she really felt the connection between academic knowledge and the broader world. She understood the dynamics of that ever changing place in the world. This became an impact on her life that would change and shape her forever. She explained how her professors were her “mothers away from home” and the academy her “home away from home”. This phenomenon is known as “other mothering” and is a characteristic of African American female teachers. As the village does, female African American teachers view “mothering” as a communal responsibility as well as an act of service. African American female teachers tend to care more about their students and hold them to the same expectations as they would their very own children. They naturally understand the power of nurture and caring for others, especially those of the same race. African American female teachers understand the importance of the “village raising the child”. They understand the realization that a mother cannot physically be there to raise their child every minute of every hour of the day; therefore it is the job of the “village” or community to pick up where she leaves off. With and through the presence of this concept Sunny-Marie Birney became inspired and followed the sacred calling of becoming a teacher. She believed it was her destiny to follow the legacy of caring, committed, and cultural uplifting that determined her to be where she is now. She now stands on the shoulders of the countless visionaries knowing she follows a path deeply rooted in a rich history of excellence of women who make it possible to envision a dream.
- Brittney L. Echols