Young Activism

I regularly have conversations with my literature students about the importance of identities in writing.  In our course that focuses on British works, we talk about the voices and experiences that are included, as well as those that are excluded - in our anthology,  most of the authors are white, and a majority are male.  History and context matter when we think about literary productions and why so many writers of color are not included in these collections.

With these discussions fresh on my mind, I read about a young activist who is working to ensure that books that contain the stories about young Black girls are included.  Marley Dias, who is 11 years old and lives in New Jersey, started a book drive when she noticed that all the books she was exposed to in the 5th grade were written from the perspective of white male narrators.  She was not seeing herself in any of these texts.  Her goal is to collect one thousand books that contain young Black girls as central characters.

It is encouraging to see her activism, as well as the response to Marley's project and to hear folks talking about the importance of literature that reflects identities and experiences, particularly for young kids.  It's not just the college-level British literature course that requires critiquing, but certainly children's literature as well.

#1000blackgirlbooks

Marley Dias

Baraka's "Wailers"

by Mario Providence

Amiri Baraka was, and continues to be, a very influential figure in African American history. His poems and plays are captivating and always have a strong message to deliver. One particular poem that stands out is "Wailers," and how he uses the word as play on the story Moby Dick and the legendary Bob Marley.

This poem paid a tribute to Bob Marley, and how he as a performer and musician changed the world with his ‘wailing.’ Baraka uses Marley’s lyrics as a way to symbolize his understanding for the way people live their lives. “Hail to you Bob, man! We will ask your question all our lives. Could You Be Loved? I and I understand."

Bob Marley fits into this poem in a variety of ways while Baraka plays on the words "wail" and "whale." Wailers was not only the name of his band, but it also serves as a verb, because that is exactly what they did. They wailed about oppression, love, and pain as an expression of what the common (Black) man experiences, which can be compared to the story about the whale, that “hummed”, or ‘sang’ in the sea.

On the other hand, Baraka mentions the whalers that kill whales and “… get on top of a whale and wail." This is where the connection to Bob Marley is made. He also references Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick, and his battles with “the huge mad white beast.”

This clever word play not only makes this poem a great read, but shows how two completely different things can be so similar in such a subtle way. The way the hit song from Uprising was incorporated, was perhaps the best part of the poem, in my opinion. Baraka found a way to tie in all the different components and make them one unique and meaningful poem.

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Mario Providence is a student at North Harris College.

From Slave to American Icon

by Mario Providence

Frederick Douglass is perhaps one of the most influential African American abolitionists, writers, and reformers. Before he became all of these things, he was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, a young man born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. Many events changed that young boy into the man he became and also served to shape his identity as a revolutionary figure in history.

He had no recollection of his birthday, most slaves didn’t. The fact that he was deprived of that privilege was probably his first recollection of the unfair treatment by whites of the enslaved individuals. Throughout his childhood, he could only make estimates based on his master once mentioning that he was about seventeen during the year 1835.

Although Douglass knew his mother, Harriet Bailey, he would not have the luxury of being with her for an extended period of time because, like most enslaved children, he was separated from her. He lived with his maternal grandmother for most of his early life. However, his father was a white man, and also his master.

One experience that stood out, besides the savage beatings, was the way enslaved individuals were fed. They were served cornmeal in a large trough or trays on the floor, their dining experience similar to those of pigs or horses, not of human beings. Douglass describes a survival-of-the-fittest style of living, where who eats the fastest got the most and thus became the strongest and the rest would be left without or unsatisfied.

Douglass went on to become a hero in the eyes of many, with the vision to fight for black citizenship and freedom. These few experiences are only a glimpse into the horrible childhood he encountered. Though they weren’t pleasant, they play a major role in his identity as a man, a hero, and an icon.

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Mario Providence is a student at North Harris College.

The Relationship Between Frederick Douglass and Mrs. Auld

By Iriana Cossio

When you think of a slave’s mistress and captain, you think about one who is owned and forced into service by another, and also not getting paid for the work he or she completed. Now, when Frederick Douglass was seven and he first laid eyes on his mistress, his first thought was that she was “a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings.” He was amazed by her ostensible graciousness.

Douglass knew there was no woman like her around in that period and he knew exactly how to approach her. She was the complete opposite of all other white woman he came in contact with and he could tell for a fact that she had never owned slaves. He knew he need not approach her the way he approached other white women, with extreme caution,r because he could automatically tell she was a gentle soul.

Douglass, in his narrative, notes that “the meanest slave was put fully at ease in her presence, and none left without feeling better for having seen her face of heavenly smiles and her voice of tranquil music.” Soon after living with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she introduced Douglass to the alphabet, and also to spell words of three to four letters. As soon as Mr. Auld found out what his wife was doing, he put it all to end at once.

Mr.Auld let Mrs. Auld know that it was “an unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read and as to himself it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm.”  Mrs. Auld became more educated about white enslavement and she started to see the reality around her, which was the way a slaveholder should behave towards their slave; she cruelly adjusted her approach to those she and her husband enslaved. Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see Douglass with a newspaper because she knew he was reading to better himself.  

It only took a few minutes for Mr. Auld to turn Mrs. Auld’s tender heart into stone. This did not stop Douglass from bettering himself, because he learned a meaningful fact, which was why slave masters are so determined to keep their slaves from fleeing from them. Slaveholders are only capable of enslaving African Americans if white slave owners discourage and enslaved individuals from learning about how the white dominant world operates.

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Iriana Cossio is a current student at North Harris College.