“To Be Black, Female, and Literate: A Personal Journey in Education and Alienation,” is a personal essay written by Leonie C.R. Smith on her individual experience in literacy and education beginning with her schooling in Antigua and her matriculation through American school systems. Smith breaks her journey into two parts. In the first part she describes her life as a young, black, and literate female growing up on the Caribbean island of Antigua, and in the second half of her journey she describes her challenges of being a black, literate female in America. Each part of her journey tells a unique story of what molded Smith into the person she has become.
Born into a large family on the island of Antigua, Smith learned the importance of being literate at a very young age. Her father instilled the importance of education into his children after he witnessed his own mother fall victim to illiteracy when she was cheated into selling her estate because she did not understand the content of a contract she agreed to. Through this event Smith saw literacy as a means of survival. She said, “My life long pursuit of education and academic literacy is a stepping stone on my way to independence.” During her early years of schooling in Antigua, Smith excelled in her classes and she was encouraged to succeed in her studies. The primary school education that Smith received was by way of British standards. She was taught British English and had to be able to differentiate when she was to speak British English or the local language of patois. This challenge in deciding which language was appropriate at which times was the first of many challenges Smith would face with identity.
In 1987, Smith immigrated to Brooklyn, New York where she began the seventh grade. In America, Smith came to be labeled as illiterate due to culturally biased American literacy test that did not fit with the standard British education she had received during her primary schooling. Through the rest of her secondary school years, Smith realized the cultural and racial differences between her Antiguan self and her American classmates. These differences became more challenging as she entered college life. Smith attended Hamilton College, “a private predominately White upper-class miniature Ivy League institution.” During her time spent at Hamilton College, Smith faced many a days of racism from both peers and professors. She describes her time at Hamilton as being marked with “intense loneliness and isolation.” Racism spread from her classroom time, into her athletics, her social life, and just about every other piece of who she was. However, Smith was determined to succeed despite the toll racism had on her day to day life.
Smith chose to push past the negative that surrounded her because she had a goal she wanted to achieve. She found the positives in her life that helped her like joining cultural organizations and finding strength in other women of color or Caribbean background who attended Hamilton College. Above all, she found strength in herself especially by holding on to her own Caribbean identity instead of completely assimilating in to a culture that had seemed to reject her. Smith survived and moved on past Hamilton and began working towards a doctorate degree in Health Education at Kent State University. Smith’s journey is a brave struggle of identity and racism and how endurance and focus prevails.
Kirah Brace
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