This week's readings were about people having a chance of learning to read to gain knowledge of the world and to themselves. The readings were "Learning to Read and Growing in Knowledge" by Frederick Douglass, "Exercises in the Restoration of History" by John Ross, and "Frankie Mae" by Jean Wheeler-Smith.
As I was reading these three stories, they all have something in common: The people who are not white don't have the right to have knowledge because of their race. Today anybody can read but all these stories were taken in the past. In the first reading by Frederick Douglass, he talks about himself as a young slave boy living in the plantation with his family. He then talks about the mistress he became friends with and discovered about learning to read to gain knowledge about the world. He learned to read by the mistress of the house by reading the Bible as his very first book but along the way he also learned how to write by his white friends surprisingly as well as they encouraged him that someday he will be free. One day as he was learning to read by the mistress, the husband came in and he was shocked to find Doug reading and then proceeded to warn his wife about the dangers of letting a black man read. A few years later, the mistress changed her kind ways and became a monster and it was a clear understanding for Doug about the rules of slavery making as he believes, "Nature made them friends, but slavery makes them enemies."
The second story was about some cigarworkers in Tampa, Florida. They really want to learn to read but they have no choice but to work all day with little pay. They also explained that they want to hear more stories from many famous authors from the readers' who were paid by the workers themselves to read all day long. Similar to the first story, they were forced to work but at the same time, their readers were never ever return to read to them again because the workers were not allowed to have knowledge because of their race.
The last story is a really sad story about the consequences of knowing knowledge. The story is about a family who were working in a plantation in Mississippi. A girl who was interested in learning more knowledge goes to school while her family works in the cotton fields. Her name was Frankie Mae and she was full of life and joy. She loved reading and writing as well as taking
responsibility in taking care of her family but all the love and joy ended when she faced the Mr. White. Throughout the year, Frankie kept a record about how much cotton they made and should be paid for but Mr. White didn't give them what they really should have. In response, her father apoligized and White cursed Frankie because of her being smarter and also because of her race. Since then, Frankie never really recovered from that and never been the same again which her father has witnessed it all. In the end, after the tragic end of Frankie, the workers decided to stand up for themselves and go on a workers strike.
Through all the three stories, I felt deep sadness for those who either had no chance or some chance at reading. Its not fair for what they did to them or treat them but that endless hope to escape the harsh reality by reading is what keep's them going. These readings also compare to the lecture about the church and the nobles vs. the peasants in the feudal era.
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Good critique, Vanessa. I would say though that race is not the only reason why people may be oppressed. Think about class and gender too - how do they fit in these stories? There are also many communities where boys are the only ones allowed to go to school. My own grandmother, growing up in a Jewish ghetto in the Ukraine in the turn of the century, hid outside the school to hear her brothers learning the Torah.
ReplyDeleteOne other question - for "Exercises in the Restoration of History" - were all the cigar workers illiterate? If not, why would they want the readers otherwise?
-Ariana