Elaine Richardson emphasizes the idea of consciousness several times in the text To Protect and Serve: African American Female Literacies. She explores consciousness as a situational occourence. Often times African Americans have had to conform when in certain settings. This is particularly because African Americans have been present as a minority in the American society. According to Richardson, conforming happens when one changes their speech, condition, and position.
Richardson says in To Protect and Serve that “The black woman’s consciousness of her conditioning, her position/ing in American society, the conditioning of her audiences must be factored into her language and literacy practices”.
This quote draws on the idea that there is a stigma amidst being both black and a woman in America. From the past, ideas that both groups are inferior have led us toward a culture that does not celebrate the contributions that African American women have made to better the society. For this reason, black women have had to work for acceptance, by changing their vernacular and sometimes cultural traditions. Such literacy practices such as storytelling, performative silence, and steppin/rhyming are identified with African American women. These practices have not been widely accepted. Therefore, the idea of consciousness has affected when and where African American women practice their traditions.
This text stimulated a lot of reflective discussions for Melodies about growing up in a society where there are so many divisions and little grey area. Jasmine, one member of the group, noted that when she texts peers that are proper she tends to write in a similar way. However, when she is texting friends that use text lingo and slang, she replies in the same format. Berkley pondered on her middle school years when she attended an all girls, predominantly white, private school and had to be herself while still desiring to make friends and be accepted by the students. Danielle offerred insight into her years in private school when she overheard her white peers jokingly referencing black lingo. Asya refenced her memory of etiquette class and how the black girls didnt seem out of their element even though she knew that they didnt live the way they acted in class. W.E.B. Dubois shed light on this when he introduced his theory of double consciousness and the internal conflict of being black and American. The group agreed that self acceptance and confidence comes with maturity and leads to one being able to exist comfortably in various, diverse settings. Overall the group was affected negatively by the text because of the stereoptyical way that black women were portrayed. Despite their personal opinions of the text, the group felt empowered and able to change negative images of African American women through all of the different ways that they express literacy.
