Going Against the Grain

- Nehemie Villarceau
Reading Going Against the Grain one thing that struck me was the perseverance of the black woman. The adversities she faced such as slavery and the fight for freedom is great in itself. Yet the black women also wanted to be educated and a well-rounded mother, wife and daughter. Going Against the Grain also reminds me of Literacy and the Black Women by Sharon M. Darling. The different forms of literacy such as functional and maternal literacy are shown throughout the reading.
According to the reading Going Against the Grain, black women “were interpreters and reinterpreters of what was going on. They were transmitters of culture as mothers actual and fictive, as teachers and social activists.” Simply said the women were the thread that held the community quilts together. As in many modern day communities, the women are often the mother and father in a household and are forced to mold and care for a family on her own. They teach their sons how to tie a tie, ride a bike and their daughter to cook, and be a stand out woman. These mothers often were a product of a woman who did the same for them.
“They sought to learn to better themselves, to change their world.” This quote struck me as interesting because it describes the Spelman women today. During orientation week administration stressed to us that the choice to attend Spelman is the choice to change the world. A few of my Spelman sisters come from a family as describe in the previous paragraph. The women at Spelman realize that education is the key to success and strive to be better through education. It goes to show you that as Black women we will push to go against the grain no matter what hard balls are thrown at us.