"Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Woman Peer Counselors"- Lara A.

“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"

This article by Robin Wisniewski focuses on the importance of counseling during the prime time of change, transition, and college.

          Before entering college all lessons learnt were from the eyes of what we were disciplined at home. Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, older cousin and siblings were the influences you had when growing up. Understanding life and hardship, and key elements of survival were all taught lessons from your household. How you were raised was primitive to the individual you would grow up to be. In Robin’s article she takes this concept of learning and observation to the key element of always still no matter your age or milestone, everyone still needs a counselor. When younger your most dominant counselors were the members of your household and maybe other idols outside your family, but when one grows up and goes to college, now your counselors are all that surround you. When reaching college you now have to develop to now relearn things, look at things in a different sense due to the crowd of people you’re surrounded by; all that an above. Your no longer in an environment closed in and only having a one sided option like momma repeated words, "My Way or the Highway." Now you are in an environment surrounded by new looks and influences.
 When searched the term transformative learning, Wikipedia resisted the term as:

Transformative learning is a term used in educational theory to describe a process which leads the learner to re-evaluate past beliefs and experiences which had previously been understood within assumptions derived from others.

      And this definition is exactly what college develops you to see and understand. The lessons taught as a child will come back to you in times of need and questioned experiences.

      Robin speaks on how counselors are trying to help girls transition from school life into college, and the best thing that the counselor can really convey is to never lose yourself, stay dependent, and know your standards. In other words remember the house in which you came from, don't fall into pressures and stay true to self.

Who Are We Not To Teach?

                In this selection Sunny-Marie Birney, gives the reader an inside story on her background before elaborating on her main. She tells us how she was raised by a Euro-American family. Which does not exactly mean that they were not of color, but they did not help her identify with her African American race. She states that for 18 years she felt a void and a some what hole in her identity as a young black woman. However upon entering college she states that she begins to learn about herself. She does this by the influence of her college of her professors, whom were African American. I can relate to what she is stating too, because although I was not raised by Euro-American I still know what it is like not to be around a lot of people who look and somewhat think like me.

As she goes through her four years she begins to learn her identity and understand her African American heritage. She then states how this relates to service gives quotes from Carter G. Woodson and Paulo Friere. They talk of the liberation of education and how it can set us free from the oppression that has been created. She states next the three principles of the woman’s pedagogy. Basically she states that as women we have had the women of our past pave the way for our future and she states that it is our duty to carry on the torch so that we can pave the way for the future generations.

The Welfare Brats, Pimps, and Whores

I first really like the figurative language of using the slang term of pimp as the representation of the socialist body. A socialist being a person that believes everyone should be equal and everyone contributes to their society, and a pimp believing in nothing but the collaboration of systems to earn him respect and money at the end of the day. Seeing how socialist can be seen as the pimps of society really broaden my perspective. This article “The Welfare Brats” from the book The Destruction of Black American mentions how the pimps of society are egged onto the democratic side and how them having their ways and view in society has driven the black culture through turmoil. Given respect to blacks wanting respect and abolishing discrimination by forging the civil rights movement, through we pressed for change and equality we still gave the white society the upper hand. We protest for equality of schools and placement, yet we force our african american students into the white society, contradicting the intelligence and proving schools in our community don't have much to offer. We contradict ourselves even more by accepting affirmative action jobs. Quoted “We are going to help you get out from under the weight of racism, but you are going to have to sell us your community to experiment with socialism in america,” thats what these PIMPS of politics are trying to instill in the black culture, which in the end give the white society control of what is open for all to participate in or what is secured only to the dominant right side of the fence. As the welfare brats come along, these brats sit comfortably under the totem bar. Many Brats excepting their place in society and to accept conditions in which they live and survive off of. The PIMPS tell them everything is going to be alright, when an opening is available we'll sit you out there for the world to see, but that brat or in other terms those whom are underneath the totem pole will only be seen in the ways society will accept their presence. So in the end are the PIMPS doing their job, setting equality straight, or is their job more over to accept the RIGHTS ways and force the LEFTS side to accept and force them into acceptance to? Is the LEFT to quiet on their views and is the LEFT giving up on titles and topics worth fighting equality for?

Examples: Voting democrat or republican.... The number of Black votes compared to Whites... The mindset that many minorities have, claiming that their vote won't matter.

Are the Brats sitting comfortably after years of protest and civil rights actions, to now just allow society to be shaped in the eye of the RIGHT?

By: Lara Aiyegbusi

Roles of Black Women: Failures or Victories

When watching block buster hits such as “The  Color Purple”, “Losing Isaiah”, “Eve’s Bayou” etc., have you ever questioned the perspectives of which the movies were made or the effects they may have on the publics’ view about African-American Women? Ever so often, when a black woman is present within a movie, there is always something to downgrade her worthiness to the public eye. The character is either being abused, has an addiction, living in poverty, or illiterate. However when this takes place we are challenged to ask, “Is this notion intentional , produced to mock African-American Women and set in stone what they believe her place should be in society or does it happen mistakenly from trying to tell a story of a struggle and victory?” I believe that most of the time the movie is produced to expose to the public the strength of African-American women and their ability to overcome the hardships they are challenged with because of societal values such as race, gender, and class. However I will not deny the fact that movies have been made to define the Black Woman’s role. I highly encourage the addition of black women in movies with roles of power, wealth, and prestige, Maybe there should be more movies depicted the women that I’ve gotten the chance to encounter.

Posted By: Monique Henderson

the student becomes the teacher

The last portion of Going Against the Grain describes how African Americans are responsible for laying the foundation of literacy for themselves. Before public schools the black church and other black community groups educated blacks. It astounding because before and during the civil war time blacks were not even considered to be equally capable of learning, however they ended up not only learning but also teaching.

1871 education for blacks become more available to a mass in Atlanta when the first public school opened.  Some parents were excited about the opportunity to a free education; however wealthier black parents did not want their children going to a “southern designed system.” Spelman is mentioned as a prominent school because Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles knew that the literacy of African American women was important!  

All in all Going Against the Grain describes how African Americans proved society wrong by becoming literate citizens of America. We not only survived slavery but also affected the world with our literate movement.

When Opportunity Knocks.

        Before the Civil War, African-Amerian Women had to be innovative and secretive when it came to literacy. However once the Civil War ended it gave them the opportunity to establish their literacy to its fullest potential. They started three movements to provide African-Americans with basic literacy instruction: the Sabbath movement, the misssionary movement, and the common or public school movement. The Sabbath movement consist of African-American forming their own schools that were church-sponsered and community operated. The missionary movement (1860's) advocated freedom, justice, and empowerment. They also joined forces with the African-American men and women that were apart of the educational enterprises and became the primary resource for literacy of the South. Through the formation of common or public schools (1870's) the southern authorities regained their power over African-Americans. These literacy movements mark the emphasis on how African-American women often goes the extra mile to make sure her people progress, when there's an open door for an opportunity to better ourselves, the determination of the African-American women always take advantage and build from it.

- Posted By: Monique Henderson

The Past to the Present: Going Against the Grain.

 In todays day an age we have opportunity, 

It only takes but ONE person to stand up and take charge of a situation. When you notice something is injustice, not fair, discriminative, and you have the feeling you can change it around, why not. Prime example  Elias Neau; whom opened up his home in new york for african americans to be taught after their daily activity and deeds were done, to learn school literacy. in 1708 he had numbers over 200 whom he aided in his school, and still after his death his groundwork was still in the process of running and continued to educate african americans . With the aid of just one man taking a huge step for mankind, the world can become a way more better and diverse place. The help of one person whom wants to serve it's peers with the same justice system cause potential for growth and development. Two african american men Harry and Andrew set up a school in South Carolina after being taught in the hands of Elias Neau, this is an example of furthering education, rights, and success. This school that was open held it's main purpose to have those students whom ever wanted to partake in its system to express ones self on the topics of religion and reading. It became a place of shared knowledge amongst others. The same idea of shared knowledge is what first set these two men to begin their school, and the two men that founded that school accompanied their idea of shared knowledge through Elias Neau, and whom influences Elias Neau was the set time of slavery and the injustice of banning literacy and understanding to whom ever wanted to learn. The system of knowledge goes way back to the first trying days of this country. Without one person making a giant step to progress and open gates and opportunity for others to proclaim themselves, how id knowledge suppose to grow, or how are we suppose to develop. Even things we weren't allowed to do, such as gobble down alot of candy at once or even ignoring the sign near the pool that says do not run on the deck. How are we to know the outcome and lesson learnt if we don't experiment for ourselves an go against whats told of us. We learn from our mistakes or develope from them, educating ourselves with an experience and a lesson learned. The steps that Reverend Samuel Thomas,  Reverend Doctor Thomas Bray, and Elias Neau took at the time wasn't just to rebel against the slave masters at that time, it turns out without their courageousness we african americans could be a race with limited information known to our knowledge.  It takes one big gesture, one big step, to change society around.