Dassit! I'm dun up!
No, that's not it. I'm not finished just yet.
I mentioned a few posts back that I'm reaching a milestone in my life: graduation! Yes, it's that time again. Time for the flipping of the tassels and moving forward onto a completely new and profound adventure. But of course, nobody wants to hear that story! Instead, I'd like to have a conversation about what I learned in my AAWR course.
First off, I've learned and have truly accepted (especially over the past two years) that it's okay to be a Black woman. It's okay to be loud (sometimes) and it's okay to just get shit off your chest. I've learned that going to jail, as many Black women have done, fighting for a worthwhile cause is really not all that bad. It's not bad in this sense because we are imprisoned and oppressed for way worse causes like just having skin that isn't pale. Collectively, we don't have it easy. It's never been easy and I'm sure the road don't get no betta'. However, there exists within Black women a certain special something...a grassroots, deep down, way down, all the way down in the earth kind of strength that is a force to be reckoned with. History, has a way of revealing the faults of nations through those who live it. African Americans have, as many other colored races, been raced and classed and lumped together under an ideal and notion of inferiority. Black people, with attention paid to Black women, have revealed themselves as withstanding and everlastingly determined to overcome that which seeks to hold them back. It takes a certain kind of finesse and acuity to take one's struggle and make it tangible to the rest of the world - a world that may or may not care to bare witness to it all.
I won't make this long, but I will say that Black women...we just got it. there's really no other way to put it. Rhetoric can be found everywhere. It doesn't have to be obtained or preached by a celebrity,and you don't need a million Twitter followers to do it, either. Rhetoric begins at the bottom. It begins locally, and this locality is what enables many rhetors to be so pervasive in our society. It's rhetoric in the mind and body and message of a Black woman that points to realities that other racialized beings could never really hope to be a part of or duplicate. It's rhetoric, more often than not, that gives many of us a purpose. Black women back in the day and Black women now have done the world a great service in spreading their message and opening eyes and ears all over. The battle fought and won is one that should be remebered, honored, and cherished because of what it means to African Americans as a race.
I'm able to get my degree today because a Black woman once stood up and fought and argued and backtalked her way into our access to an education. I'm able to vote and go out in public without the consent of a man because a Black woman put her foot down somewhere along the line. If it wasn't for Black women's rhetoric, I honestly don't know where or who I'd be. And so (before I get emotional), I tip my proverbial hat to Black women everywhere.
To those not here today, you are sorely missed and appreciated.
To those of us still fighting the good fight, we got a long way to go.
(I'd especially and formally like to thank Dr. Carmen Kynard for this experience. I don't know where St. John's found you but they damn sure got lucky! You're an inspiration as a post-secondary educator.)
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