We talked about Elaine Richardson's piece "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing up Black, Po and A Girl in the Hood." In this we saw how she redefined commonly used phrases, terms, and actions based on her experience growing up. We explored how certain terms and phrases can mean different things to you depending upon your own subject position. For instance, the ladies in the class talked about the phrase "Hey Baby" which many men see as an appropriate even flattering way of approaching a woman and how they find it offensive because of the sexual connotations it holds. Richardson explored this theory even more explaining how there's a difference in the meaning of the phrase based on who's using it. When an adult white male says this phrase to young black female it he is exerting his power as the dominant male in a patriarchal society and marking her as a sexual object. All of this from two little words.
Afterwards we all wrote about instances when we experienced some form of miscommunication due to someone's lack of knowledge of the other person's subject position or their life experiences. Again we looked at how factors such as where you're from, what you believe, how you grew up, or simply what you know can change the meanings of certain words and/or phrases.
How Can We Apply the Reading to Our Own Writing
We pointed out two things that we really liked about Richardson's piece that we would like to see in each other's writing:
- Focus: Richardson's piece had a clear focus. Every anecdote she included served the purpose of her narrative. It stayed on track.
- Clarity: Richardson always made sure that the reader understood exactly what she had learned from her different experiences. She gave clear explanations for each of her of anecdotes.
The things we didn't like about her writing included the fact that she sometimes used generalizations and that her language sometimes alienated the reader.
Homework
- Where I'm From Narrative Due Thursday 9/21 by noon
- Blog Posts Due Thursday 9/21 and Sunday 9/25 (I will no longer post reminders for blog posts. A blog post is due every Thursday and Sunday by 4pm)
- Read "Why My Mother Can't Speak English" by Garry Engkent pgs 32-39 and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris pgs 64-69 for Monday 9/26
- Literacy Narrative Rough Draft Due Wednesday 9/28 ( Make sure you at least start thinking about what you want to write about this weekend and where you may want to go with your narrative.)
Possible Blog Post Topics
- Compare your experience writing your Where I'm From poem and your Where I'm From narrative. Was it easier for you to write in one genre than it was for the other. What did you like about one genre versus the other? What did you learn from this experience?
- What were your own personal reactions to the reading for today. You can talk about your initial feelings here. How do you feel about the way Richardson created her own meaning for different phrases and experiences based on her race, gender, and class? Have you had any similar experiences?
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