Hi Everyone,
If you are shaken up by yesterday’s subway attack, then you are among many New Yorkers, myself included, who are experiencing shock, grief, fear, anger, and disbelief in the light of this tragedy. Let’s all stay safe and be kind to one another.
For post 7, I asked you to express your thoughts on the African-American perspective. Thank you for sharing. Below are some highlights:
Armani: One way we can help establish more equality for the black community is JUSTICE and EQUALITY in itself on every platform. My community is yearning for quality in the hospital as research has shown that medical professionals ignore the health concerns of black women and black women are more likely to die during childbirth than white. We need justice in the classroom, we need equality when we stand before a judge for another black life lost at the hands of a law official. We need equality when we’re approached by an officer. Daro adds: We can help that happen, by providing same opportunities as white people to the black African community. And create a specific law like consequences will happen if the black community isn’t offered same chances as the whites. Seyitnazar says: There are many ways to help establish more things for the Black/ African-American community. One method can be having library access much more accessible. So many cannot go due to the hours, but if there were such a library where it could be electronic and just a 24-hour place, it would help all.
Deleny: Literacy is used as a hegemonic tool/tool of power as seen during the 19th and 20th century by White / Caucasian-Americans, especially from the South, against Black / African-American Americans to show differences in social classes, stereotypes, and intelligence. Justin adds: Literacy has been used by the rich white folk to keep black and minorities from advancing in this country. For example, that stupid literacy test asking “Spell backwards, forward.” it prevents minorities from using their right to vote because they may have messed up one question. Keyana also says: Literacy is used as a hegemonic tool of power because during slavery, slave owners didn’t allow their slaves to read books. They knew that if they were able to find their voice from reading, they would start to know their value. Melissa concludes: Linguistic hegemony is identified and defined as what is achieved when a dominant group builds consensus by embracing others and persuading others to use them as a standard or paradigm. It has been. In education, learning literacy has always been more than just learning. Vera says: The black community has not been given the same opportunities as white people, literacy included. While outright racism like not being hired because of race has decreased drastically, there are still issues with educational opportunities, which impacts literacy.
Qudus: The article titled “With COVID, the African-American Literacy Crisis Will Get Much Worse,” argues that school districts should not only fund programs to improve the literacy levels of African-American students, but also try to engage these students in lessons at a young age and create a safe classroom environment for them to learn. Moemin adds: The argument in the article is that black students are in a learning crisis. With the COVID pandemic striking, the situation is about to worsen with the education switching to online and black students might miss out due to lack of connectivity. Coleman (2022) asserts that literacy is an essential requirement for employment, and with black people not being educated, their lives will worsen.
Joshua, on the literacy test: I felt like it was extremely unintuitive and frustrating. Some of the questions seemed like a question a friend would give you to say “gotcha” like “Spell backward, forwards” or “Draw a triangle with a blackened circle that overlaps only its left corner”. the fact that you only have 10 minutes to complete these tests only adds to the ridiculousness of these tests.
Together, you said it better than I would have!
This week, which focuses on Literacy and Gender (with quiz 5 as the assessment), ends on Thursday, April 14th. Spring Break is April 15th to April 22nd. Can you please submit your essay draft (under Peer Review on our Discussion Board) by Monday, April 25th? The 11:59pm is fine, but I’d like everyone to give and receive feedback between then and Thursday, April 28th, to give you time to revise your draft accordingly.
I wish you a restorative Spring Break,
Prof. Barnes
