"To Protect and Serve": African American Female Literacies

While reading Elaine Richardson's "To Protect and Serve": African American Female Literacies the beginning was the most captivating. The opening kept my attention and was on my mind throughout the rest of the reading. The term "Mother Tongue stood out to me. I am still wondering if there is a certain definition that can clearly give an explanation of the essential meaning of the term. According to Elaine Richardson, “The term mother tongue can be understood on several levels” (677).
From the reading I can basically argue a definition of mother tongue in my own words. My level of understanding of mother tongue would be that is a type of literacy that is taught through the tongues of maternal figures. Elaine Richardson writes, “Woman is the child’s first teacher, who protects it even in her womb and begins to socialize it” (677). This quote helps me support my reason for composing a certain definition of mother tongue. She also adds, “But, more basically, our language, our mother tongue, is at least partly how we know what we know.” (677)
I agree with Elaine Richardson’s arguments about the concept of mother tongue literacy. There are different types of literacy we are introduced to throughout our lives. The main literacy that I believe most of us are taught first is maternal literacy. The nurture of a mother to her child is a wonderful and never-ending experience because it is full of knowledge that sticks with you which allows you to pass it down to your own children. I still learn a lot from my mother just from watching her interact with my siblings and I. As a young child, your mother was your first teacher. Everything your mother taught you was what you took with you on the first day of school and continued to add on to the knowledge that was given to you from mother tongue literacy.

The Power of African American Women

After reading “’To Protect and Serve’: African American Female Literacies”, I was able to understand how powerful Black women really are as opposed to how they are perceived. In this literature, Elaine Richardson begins by acknowledging the stereotypes of African American women. She states how they are referred to as promiscuous and risqué, but also as motherly, wholesome, selfless beings. Throughout the text, the portion that really spoke to me was about just how hard an African American woman can love. In the days of chattel slavery, African American women were the ones who took care of their children, their master and their master’s children. This caring, maternal trait has been passed from generation to generation and is now a common trait among young women of color. As nurturing, selfless women, African American women also wanted to prove the stereotypes of them and their people wrong. But, through all the hatred and stereotypes, the question still remains: why be so caring and noble towards someone who has caused you so much pain? The African American women of our past used their loving nature to advance themselves, their families and anyone else who struggled as they did. African American women took care of others, but they did it to survive and be treated with respect in the long run. They may have been perceived as “Mammy” (Richardson, 676), the caregiver who would do anything for her master, but Mammy was also doing whatever it took to make a better name for African Americans everywhere. Throughout slavery until now, African American women have been striving to create a better reputation for themselves. In the media today, some women of color have begun to accept the lowly status they were given many years ago. But, what they need to realize, as Richardson states, is that they have just as many rights as the European Americans and race has nothing to do with your position is society. This reading helped me understand that
African American women are much stronger than they have been taught to believe. We as African American women should not stand by and let stereotypes and other negative ideas stand in our way. African American women are very powerful because of what they have experienced and others should not reject them, but listen to what they have to say.

Why use a "Guide to Living an American Life" When You Are an African American?

In the text, “To Protect and Serve: African America Female Literacies” by Elaine Richardson the idea of women expressing themselves through literacy is highly supported. Having literature that not only reflects an African American’s point of view but an African American woman’s point of view is needed for the domestic world. In the article Richardson states, “African women controlled the domestic sphere. The women took care of their own children as well as others.” Having the accessibility of African American literature builds a black women’s knowledge of the importance of how to be a nurturer and protector. In this article, Richardson explains through the additions of other text, the struggle and debate African American women have when it comes to telling their story. White supremacists have a great influence on today’s society that they somehow convince black women today that the lives that their ancestor’s have fulfilled were meaningless. Women seem to have a sense of being story tellers. In particular, elders such as grandmothers and great grandmothers have a passion for telling stories of their past. These stories are not told just so they can have something to do or more or less be entertained in with the company of another but it is to be heard. Our African American mothers and grandmothers have such meaningful and life-fulfilled experiences that need to be share and embedded into our minds so that we will never forget. We shall never forget who we are or where we came from. Listening and learning from African American literacy reminds us of who we are and what are responsibilities are as African American women. As the article is title, we have to protect and serve! Not by the American terms of our country but for our families and your legacy. From my personal experience, listening to the long and dragging but above all interesting stories and experiences of my grandmother and mother, I have realized by purpose in life. “Should we respect our language and ways of knowing as little girls or in our homes as we develop into women? Or should we gradually have our minds erased with each passing year of formal school?” This quote taking from the article raises an important question. I believe we shouldn’t. If we let the American literature control our thinking and lose our knowledge that we have gained from our African American women we will be nothing. Think about it. A doctor can’t read the manual of an architect to do its work and we as African American can’t be filled with the “Guide to Living an American Life” to understand our purpose and who we are as African American women who protect and serve!

"To Protect and Serve": African American Female Literacy’s

In the mist of reading this selection Robinson kept my interest and curiosity fueled with the different perspectives connected to her work as a whole. In the beginning of the work images of black women were described. The images that captivated me the most are in the following quote. “…images of “money hungry heartless bitch,” “Jezzeble,” and the good ole Mamma…” (Richardson 676). These images connected to me on an emotional level because these negative stereotypes for black women are still looked upon as such till this day. My question to this quote is how do we strive to change such negative and derogative images that seem to override the black women’s literacy in the media and the tabloids? I say that we keep proving the system wrong against these “stereotypes and controlling images”! I strongly believe in a positive outlook for women no matter the race. I hold a strong belief in women because they are the dominant factors when it comes to embracing the love that they have for their familes and sharing that love. Even through miles of pain and suffering that may come up, Women of color is steadfast in protecting their children by any means necessary. “…as a nurturer and agricultural head, childrearing and nurturing were shared by women, including extended breastfeeding. …Black females experiences drove them to use whatever they had to protect their children…” (Richardson 682, 683). These quotes are good topics that answer my question; Literacy’s of nurturing, protecting and agriculture are amongst African American Females. As a whole "To Protect and Serve": African American Female Literacy’s affects me positively. Mainly toward the end when the African American female strengths and educational issues were being discussed. The ultimate point that I got from reading this selection is as follows, “sometimes as a human race we are going to come upon battlefields that try to bring us down, but it’s up to the self-sufficiency of the human race to prove the system or power that is enforcing such degrade wrong, by reaching for what is right and needed”.