Speak

“Black women comprise 44% of all illiterate women (Safman, 1986). 

Hearing that black women are illiterate saddens me, yet it makes me want to do better.  This fact makes me  sad because I am a black woman and, for lack of a better phrase, those are my people.  It is also motivation to go against the norm and become the best literate black woman that I can be to prove myself.  Black women have always, since slavery, been given the short end of the stick. 

  While Sharon Darling speaks on “Literacy and the Black Woman,” she says that “If literacy is narrowly defined as just being able to read and write, the number who would have been considered literate is negligible.”  This makes me think of the storytelling chapter that we read.  One of my classmates defined literacy as being able to read, write, and speak.  Going off of her definition, I believe that many black women are literate to some degree.  Although some black women might not be able to read or write well, we sure as hell can speak.  However, I do agree that we as black women should become literate.  Not only for  our family, but also for ourselves so that we can have a chance to compete in this cruel discriminate world.