“ The path to acquiring an education and advanced academic literacy is fraught with difficulty, and opening the door to success comes with a price.” (Smith 183).
In her essay “ To Be Black, Female and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation” Leonie C.R. Smith reminisces on her life and her path to literacy and education. It’s apparent that Smith has dealt with a tough life with the death of her mother at age five, her family having to stretch one paycheck in order to feed 13 mouths and her family home burning at the age of eight. Surprisingly, these bumps in the road never had a negative impact on her education. Smith moved from Antigua to Brooklyn, NY at age 11 and there was an automatic culture shock. The life she knew in Antigua was the complete opposite in Brooklyn. For one, she was deemed as illiterate due to the fact that she scored a 29 on an assessment and therefore placed in a class that didn’t challenge her intellectual abilities. Smith was appalled and took a stand up for her education and eventually placed in a more challenging class. Smith was able to get through high school and graduated with honors and in the top one percentile of her class. Following high school, Smith went to Hamilton College in Clinton, NY and it was there that she began to question her intelligence and herself as an African-American woman. It was at Hamilton College that Smith faced racism for the first time in her life. Smith enrolled at Hamilton College expecting the diverse environment she had in Brooklyn and her experience opened her eyes to the “real world”. Smith experienced racism from her professors, her teammates, as well as classmates. Reading this essay, I found it hard to believe that even after going through years of increasing her knowledge, studying and graduating constantly at the top of her class in middle school and high school, Smith still faced racism. Smith didn’t in with the people in her neighborhood because of her education and I was appalled at the idea of her own race looking down on her because she had her life on the right track and was trying to make something of herself. Though educated, Smith couldn’t fit in with her white peers because of the stereotype associated with being an African American woman. Smith was at a crossroads and over her education and literacy.
Smith was speaking of herself when she quoted “ The path to acquiring an education and advanced academic literacy is fraught with difficulty, and opening the door to success comes with a price.” Smith’s price was unhappiness in her neighborhood as well as Hamilton College. Smith was never accepted because of her proper English in Brooklyn and an outcast in college. As black women, we should be able to embrace our intelligence and be proud of who our heritage and culture because it has brought us to where we are today. Being literate is not a burden we must face, but a gift meant to enlighten us. Coming to this realization, I started to wonder about the fate of Black women and our literacy’s. When will it be deemed alright to be an educated Black woman? When will we as Black women be seen as equals in our own neighborhoods as well as our working environments?
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