Defining Literacy

following everyone who reblogs!

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:53:03 -0400

mbf fivepiecesofperfection

i will follow from my personal, less-than-infinity

must be 90-100% 1D

Popular Culture Racist Belief: Success = White Culture

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:45:27 -0400

Someone with a skin color other than white strives for success. They dream about moving out of their poor living conditions as a child and desire college, a high paying job, etc… do their families support them? Sometimes as one would think it would be natural for a family to want their child to be successful. However, sometimes there is another reaction: the child is accused of trying to become “white.”

One area this story is played out in often is Chicana literature. Examples of this are The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Migrant Daughter: Coming of Age as Mexican American Woman by Frances Esquibel Tywoniak, and the film Real Women Have Curves. The House on Mango Street is a novella about a young Chicana woman, Esperanza, growing up in the slums of Chicago; Real Women Have Curves is about a young Chicana women, Ana, who has to chose between going to college or giving into family pressures; and Migrant Daughter is an auto-biography about a Chicana women, Frances, who worked in the fields.

The entire neighborhood, with the exception of one or two people, encourage the protagonist to stay put inThe House on Mango Street. Esperanza is accused of trying to forget where she came from and become white. Her parents discourage her ideas about improving her life. The book ends on a hopeful note but the reader is never told if Esperanza achieves her goals. In Real Women Have Curves, Ana is prohibited from attending college. A teacher at her high school works hard to encourage Ana to challenge her family’s ideas and attend the college. Her entire family encourages her to work in the factory. In the end, Ana decided to attend college. In Migrant Daughter, Francis loved learning and wanted to continue school. In this case, her family supported her. She ended up attending Berkely College and worked as a teacher for years.

I read Migrant Daughter as part of an immigration class. Overall, the class seemed to enjoy the tale. The most common complaint was this: some students (and even the professor acknowledged this was a common complaint about the book, though as far as I can remember he did not state his opinion) believed they wree reading a story about a Mexican girl becoming white. Me and another student argued vhementaly against the argument. Francis, throughout the autobiography, refferes to enjoying aspects of Chicano/a culture. She liked the dances, some of the styles, the food, the music, the tight-knit families, etc… Francis did not become white, she became successful. The students who believed the book was about a Chicana women becoming white only meant one of two horribly untrue things: being successful means being white or that, in order for one to be successful, they must become “white.” Ana’s and Esperanza’s stories were read in a class focusing on Chicano/a literature. The class was exposed to the ideas that success does not have to mean white and that other people saw it that way through the literature we read. No one in that class accused Ana or Esperanza of becoming “white.” That is because the people in the Chicano/a literature class had gained the literacy. They realized that people could be successful and maintain their cultural identity. Those in the immigration class, did not have the literacy. They read a story about a migrant girl who stepped climed the social ladder and believed that meant she became white. If the Chicano/a literature class had read the same story, they would not have stated the book was about a Chicano/a women becoming white.

The next time you hear someone refering to a suit as “white culture,” please tell them that is a racist idea. Both whites and minorities are guilty of associating success with being white. Granted, most people in power are white males. However, this does not always have to be this way, it can change and become more diverse. It will never become diverse if people continue to accuse minorities and oppressed people of abandoning their cultural identity when they strive for success.

I keep talking about literacy all the time I figured I should...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 03:15:00 -0400

I keep talking about literacy all the time I figured I should tell some things I am literate in. Earlier in the year, I was assigned to write a “Literacy Autobiography.” For a pre-work assignment, the class had to think of three things they were literate in and do a pre-write about it. We were to take three different literacies we had and write about them. Above is five different literacies I possess: 1. Horses, 2. Scherenschnitte (German Paper cutting), 3. Fire Emblem, 4. Writing, and 5. Christianity. Of these 5, guess which two I did not write about. If you guessed 2 and 3 you are correct (A+ for you!). When I first received the assignment, one of the first things I thought about was my literacy in the video game series Fire Emblem. Clearly, I did not chose that literacy to write my autobiography about. Why? Because it was the beginning of the semester and I figured a paper about how great I was at playing a video game would not receive an “A,” even if it covered all the topics it needed to. The three I chose were horses, writing, and Christianity. I planned to write the paper on academic writing because I figured that was my most impressive literacy. After the pre-write was done, I realized that my entries on horses had double the amount of information than the other two. When I suggested I chose the topic horses, my teacher was thrilled at the idea and wanted to learn more about horses. After having almost completed the class (I do have a countdown till the last day of school, 37 days) I think I would have used Fire Emblem as one of my pre-writing choices despite the lack of social value placed on literacy in that game (and for all you FE fans reading this, I know more than Ike, for all you confused non-FE fans, if you had heard of an FE character it would be either Ike, Roy, or Marth, just proving my cred). I think that change in mind-set proves I have learned from the class like I hope you learn from this blog.

Picture credits:

The horse picture: http://www.robertvavra.com/

The Scherenschnitte: Actually, this is my own piece of art :) (The words are from Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver).

Fire Emblem picture: I honestly have no idea (a common problem in this fandom). I have like over 500 FE pictures on my computer my sister, brother, and I collect for no reason other than to say I have over 500 pictures of FE on my computer and waste time going through them. If anyone knows, please tell and I’ll give credit.

The Writing Picture: http://writing.barnard.edu/

The Cross Picture: http://christianbackgrounds.info/the-cross-sunshine/

Here is an example the different values placed on various...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:44:57 -0400

Here is an example the different values placed on various literacies. Whoever the student was, they showed a literacy in drawing and humor. The teacher recognized the literacies shown by the text “I wish I could you marks for this! LOVE IT!” However, the literacy the student exhibited was not as valued as the one she or he was asked to show. In all fairness, the student was being tested in a different literacy than the one shown. However, ask yourself, who would you think is smarter? Someone who could draw a funny comic after a test question or someone who could answer that question correctly without much struggle (note: I asked for who was smarter, not who was cooler or who you would rather have for your best friend). In most cases, it’s the person with the science/math literacy.

This comic asks people to see things in a whole new way. Whoever...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:12:13 -0400

This comic asks people to see things in a whole new way. Whoever drew this had the ability to see from a unique point of view. This comic also shows someone using multiple literacies. Whoever did this has political and drawing literacies. They are also able to use their literacy to show how hypocritical America’s view is. They are able to see from a position outside the box through their literacy.

This video was shown in my Engilsh 357 class as part of a...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:04:13 -0400

This video was shown in my Engilsh 357 class as part of a presentation about an essay in the book The Critical Rhetorics of Race edited by Micheal G. Lacy and Kent A. Ono. Yolanda Moses argues that race is a social construct and not scientifically constructed one. Many interesting points are brought up. In particular, I find it interesting that Jews used to be regarded as their own race. They also bring up Barack Obama’s race, a much debated topic. He is half-white and half-black. Some people have claimed he’s not “black enough” to be considered “black.” I think this proves that race really is a social construct and not scientific. If race was scientific people would be just one or the other. For example, a mammal can only be a mammal. It cannot be a fish, bird, insect, etc… The same is not true for race as Bill Clinton, a man with white skin, has been called “the most black president,” and Barack Obama, a man with black skin, has been accused of not being “black enough.” Therefore, race is a social construct and not scientific.

I have talked a lot about literacy and racism without really...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:50:37 -0400

I have talked a lot about literacy and racism without really explaining literacy. I’ll explain what I mean by literacy further in this post.

Over the summer, my sister and I watched a TV show called Angel. The show is a spin-off Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A vampire named Angel was seeking redemption for his past actions (before he got a soul). In order to reach redemption, he fought evil things that go bump in the night. However, he did not do this alone. Two people who helped run Angel Investigations were Winifred “Fred” Burkle and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Fred’s main role in the group was the scientist. She knew numbers, biology, chemistry, etc… She excelled in everything “left brain” related. Wesley was the opposite. He was an excellent linguist, knew multiple languages, and had vast amounts of information regarding everything not “left brain” related.

Here is where the literacy explanation comes in. Fred and Wesley are both brilliant and they both excel in different literacies. Neither should be regarded as “smarter” or “dumber” than the other. Never was the a point in the show where one character utterly failed in their area of expertise, yet my sister insisted Fred was more intelligent than Wesley. There is nothing in the show to effectively argue that Fred is smarter than Wesley. In current society, math and science literacy, like the kind Fred had, has a higher value than the linguist literacy Wesley had. No one tells their children to be a psychologist or linguist but engineers and scientists. There is no way to prove engineering is more or less difficult than psychology, yet engineering skills are considered more difficult. This is a product of society. Every society values some literacies over others.

No one would argue that linguists are un-intelligent, what about people who pick food for a living or excel at nothing but video games? Are they unintelligent? I believe the answer is no. They simply excel in different areas of literacy, just one that happens to have little-to-no value in the current society. Could a psychologist just drop everything and pick apples all day? I doubt it. There are tricks of the trade in every skill and every skill should be recognized. Society will never put the same amount of prestige on every type of literacy, but I hope one day individual people will be able to recognize the value of all types of literacy.

The entire “what fill-in-the-blank” thinks meme is...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:10:06 -0400

The entire “what fill-in-the-blank” thinks meme is an excellent example of different literacies. Parents, society, the internet, friends, one’s self, and actual definition all have different ways of viewing something. It explains how people who come from different literacies have different ways of interpreting things.

The person who created this meme is racist and seen as racist by most venues but it blind to their own racism. Their parents see their opinions in line with the notoriously racist KKK, society believes their views lead to white men beating black men (based on context we can assume the act being done is racist act (one done simply because the person was different and not for legitimate reasons such as the man being beat was shooting people) ), the internet sees the person’s view in the same vein as the Natzis, friends also see a racist leader preaching their racist views. However, the person sees themselves as a crusader, someone fighting for justified reasons (though the crusades were in no way justified we can assume this person views them that way) and what they “really” do is live a normal, middle-class white life-style. They believe their views are normal and not racist at all. Almost everyone around this person finds their views racist because they have the ability to see the views as racist due to their level of literacy. If this person expanded their literacy skills, they would change their obviously racist views.

Here is a classic example proving racism exists in the modern...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:21:15 -0400

Here is a classic example proving racism exists in the modern world.

Recently, a the highly anticipated movie The Hunger Games, based off a book by the same name, was released to the theatres. some fans expressed racist opinions about the choice of Amandla Stenberg as Rue. The negative reaction was not due to her acting credentials or her actual performance in the movie but the fact she was African American. The character in the book is describe as having black hair and skin. Clearly, Rue was supposed to be played by someone with a darker skin tone.

One tweet that may explain why people were upset over a black actress playing a black character is Rue’s role in the movie. Rue is supposed to be innocent and [spoilers] she is killed during the games [spoilers end]. Aiana Paui stated she pictured Rue as an “innocent” blonde girl. Perhaps, there is a stereotype in Western society that the most innocent thing in the world is a white, blonde, young girl. Somehow, the fact Rue was black made her less innocent in Aiana’s eyes and Jashper Paras found the character’s death less sad because she was black.

In some cases, this is not a lack of literacy as some people acknowledged their opinion was racist or might have been racist. The others may not even be aware they are being racist and do not have the proper literacy to understand their words are racist. In some of these cases, I believe the racism is obvious enough that they must understand their comments are racist. Therefore, this controversy serves as an example of undeniable racism existing in Western culture and people who may not have access to the necessary literacy in order to understand they are being racist.

Misconceptions about Racism: Racism is dead. Racism exists...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:39:00 -0400

Misconceptions about Racism:

*Racism is dead.

*Racism exists only between whites and minorities.

*Racism is a Western world issue.

*Anytime someone insults someone of a different color from them, they are racist.

Truth about Racism

*Many people who believe they are not racist actually are.

*Defining something as “black culture” or “Asian culture” without acknowledging a “white culture” is racist.

*Most people do not mean to be racist.

*Race is a “hot topic” most fear to discuss because they worry they will be accused of being “racist.”

*Just because someone insults Barack Obama’s (fill in any other person’s name) performance as a president, does not mean they are a racist.

Literacy: a definition

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:18:51 -0400

*Literacy: (n.) the quality, condition, or state of being literate; the ability to read and write. Also: the extent of this in a given community, region, period, etc. (Oxford-English Dictionary definition)

*Literacy: what 99.9% of urbandictionary.com is missing (UrbanDictionary.com definition)

* Literacy is the ability to decode, understand, think critically, manipulate, and know the language, skill sets, and information regarding a topic. (my first definition)

*Literacy: the ability to understand the world, including views one is unfamiliar with, through decoding, understanding, thinking critically, manipulating, knowing language, knowing skill sets, knowing information. This is gained through experience, access, power, learning, rhetoric, writing, reading, critical thinking, and the ability to see from other’s view points.