Literacy and the Black Woman

       Being a black woman means that you must carry the weight of being a woman and being black, "double bias of sex and race" (17). Our culture teaches us that we are first black then a woman. So as one becomes educated, she feels the need to uplift her people. Throughout history our education has had to take a back seat to us being mothers. Now that we can have both, it seems that we have to choose. Darlings points out that in the time of slavery the ability to read was the division between the enslaved and their oppressors.
       Literacy is a way to elevate our status from the role society has relegated us. We must take advantage of all the opportunities that come across us for ourselves and our people. We must expose ourselves to new things and never stop learning.