Advanced Essay #2// The Unspoken Voice

Back when I was in middle school, I did not particularly fit in with the other girls. My parents knew at an early age that I was different and there was always going to be something different about me. I would always try to join the conversations at the lunch table saying, “Yeah guys, we should try helping around the school or something so we can get more merits from the teachers so we can all go on that big trip” and it would become super quiet immediately after my words. But, it's always that one person who doesn’t acknowledge it at all and then changes the conversation as if my information was not helpful. It made me feel as if I am not relating to the people I considered my “friends”.  It was as if I was in  this different world with a different language that only I could gain from and this wasn’t for everyone. I became more of a loner because I was the only one that would listen to my own advice. It made me become stronger within myself because I started to gain the sense of literacy by knowing my thoughts and feelings were mainly for me to gain from. Those who were really open to listening to what I would have to say whether my opinion or to benefit them to become more successful were the ones who I noticed became the closet within my circle. I was often told: “Madison, thank you for sharing what you have shared with me because it really has helped me”.  I learned to share my ideas and thoughts within myself and it has helped me personally to become successful and smart. This is something I do not want to do. But who else is going to listen to me but myself?

I began to realize that because people may view me as a background person  I would not have much to say or something relevant to say. Reading the story The Apartheid of Children’s Literature, it illustrates that African- Americans in stories are mainly viewed as background characters within the story, but do not carry major roles throughout the story. The Author of this observation Christopher Myers comments; “Perhaps this exclusivity, in which children of color are at best background characters, and more often than not absent, is in fact part of the imaginative aspect of these books.” This is telling me that in stories, African American voices are not being heard in our children's books which shows that in real life, African American voices are not being heard as a whole.  This piece of literacy shows that as an African American, society holds us from our speech and we are not being heard so we have voices/ opinions within our own group. This has tied into my literacy of not being heard by others and how I have to know that everything is not for everyone.  I had to learn that the main advice that is golden is the one that you know that is true within yourself.