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“The Knowing” by Tananarive Due

Buy this Book at Amazon.com! A powerful response to my previous post “Making Black Girls ‘Ladylike’ Discourages Achievement?” comes from Tananarive Due—a name introduced to me through my research for another entry, “Great Online Couples of the Arts.” This ‘response’ comes to me from the “black girl lost in a book,” her selection from a Tananarive Due short story, “The Knowing”, in Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing.

Tananarive approaches making Black girls “ladylike” through the soothing caresses of a mother whispering mantras to her daughter. This is a classic case of The Blues of the parent-child relationship:

Our teacher said one day that knowledge is power, and I had to raise my hand even though I don’t like to; I like to sit and be quiet and watch people and wait for lunchtime. But I had to ask him if he was sure about that, or if maybe knowledge isn’t just a curse. He asked me what I meant by that, and I said, Hey, that’s what my mama always says. Knowing is her curse, she whispers, touching my forehead at night softly with her long fingers, like spiders’ legs. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and she’s there whispering and rocking me. But I didn’t tell my teacher that part. I could tell from the way my teacher looked at me sideways and went on with his lesson that he thought I was trying to be a smart-ass. People always think you’re something you don’t want to be. Mama says that, too.

The “black girl lost in a book” worked hard to get this excerpt online so read the rest of this selection in her Blog.

Comments

NaySue, 2008-10-28 22:14:13

Thanks for the love!

rasx(), 2008-10-29 20:40:36

Actually, I should have "suppressed" your comment. But I had to make an exception!

Georgia Red, 2009-03-30 14:34:28

At this point, this is old news and water under the bridge but I just wanted to stress after reading the selection that the child in that particular text (from Due's "The Knowing" is a male child. Not a little girl. Just wanted to share. Sorry for being a know-it-all.

rasx(), 2009-04-02 06:56:28

Correct is correct...

rasx()