Voices of Our Foremothers

            Sunny Marie Birney wrote “Voices of our Foremothers”, in which she opens up about growing up in an adopted home raised by two Euro-American parents. Growing up, Birney cites that the people that had the most amount of influence on her were her Black female teachers. Birney particularly cites her three Black female professors who inspired her to become the educator and person that she is today. Birney talks about learning from Black teachers who understood that education was more about just understanding the subject, but more out defining and expanding the mind and the heart of the student. Birney goes on to discuss the foremothers in terms of Black women and education. These foremothers include Emma Wilson, Lucy Laney and Mary McLeod Bethune. Wilson founded the Mayesville Industrial Institute, which built its students on academic, cultural and spiritual lessons. Bethune attended this institute as a child and would return after graduating college to become an assistant to Emma Wilson. Bethune later went on to accept a teaching position at Lucy Laney’s Haines Institute. Bethune created her own educational institution, known today as Bethune-Cookman, a historically black institution. The foremothers had a passion for education and built fine institutions for the Black community. Birney ends her essay by speaking about the future of the Black community and education. Birney left the educational system in Lorain, Ohio as an inspiration for her students and went on to create the educational consulting group Yetu Shule Multicultural Enterprises that tutors, teaches and develops nonprofit programs for community based organizations.

            I agree with Birney’s point of view that students learn more from teachers that care seeing as I am the same way. I enjoy the research and analyzation of our foremothers. However, in recent research for my argumentative paper, I don’t agree with the fact that Birney said that Black teachers teach by comforting and becoming mothers to their students. I feel as though saying that brings the Black female back to the stereotype of “Mammy” and I think as a human race we need to move forward from that view.

 

A Response to Black and On Welfare: What You Don't Know About Single Parent Women

       Women should be tough, tender,laugh as much as possible,and live long lives. The Struggle for      equality continues unabated and the woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory – Maya Angelou 1993

Sandra Golden opens with a descriptive account of her first experience with the welfare office in her county. As a 20 year old, pregnant,scared and unemployed black women Golden sought assistance from the County Department of Human Services, a department she believed was created to help people in her situation. She then goes on to say that she left the welfare office feeling humanized and humiliated. She felt mentally abused by the caseworker's insensitivity, and her self esteem was damaged by the caseworker's discriminatory attitude. Her caseworker never inquired about her educational or employment background and it appeared that the assumption was that recipients of welfare were unmotivated, unskilled, uneducated or undereducated, and mainly responsible for raising fatherless children. Despite her caseworkers false beliefs Golden actually had over 2 years of banking experience and had completed 2 years of college course work.This is yet another example of the dominating systems such as welfare that do not recognize black women's social literacy skills.A black single parent female utilizes special literacy skills to negotiate within a social context that marginalizes and disenfranchises groups based on gender, race, education, and class.The welfare system places little value on home, family, and community literacy and primary recognizes academic literacy. Welfare is a means to an improved quality of life,not the means to barely fulfilling existence.  Although there is not much research on black women's learning in the home, managing a household requires skills in time management, budgeting, conflict resolution, facilitating and creating learning environments, and home maintenance. A woman's ability to realize her own ideal of mothering and nurturing is usually crafted by the other variables that work, family relations, and social interactions create in her life. We as a people need to take more time and care in the ways we address the issues that concern others around us.