This Is Major

This Is Major

Adult memoir
"...When your mom asked you, what do you want to be when you
grow up? and you said a princess who gets rescued by a knight on a
white horse, she did not encourage the fantasy; she looked back at you
with dark sad eyes. Much of your parents' sadness you internalized as
a measure of your value. It was not. They brought you into a world
that was already hostile to them."
When Shayla Lawson, author of This Is Major, was ten she and her
sister coveted American Girls dolls. They studied the catelogues,
circling everything they needed to make their doll ownership fantasy
come true. The problem: the only Black doll was Addy Walker, a
slave. It took nearly twenty years for Pleasant Company to introduce
a Black doll, Melody, who was free.
In her memoir in essays Lawson intertwines her personal story
with a broader historical and ethnological background. Some of her
pieces concern:
*the pressures on Black girls to be strong, independent, and not in
need of protection before they are anywhere ready to do so;
*how many Black women are hired to give companies street cred;
*how many Blacks are mistaken for one another which can have truly
dire consequences when arrest and imprisonment are involved;
and *how the concept of Black Girl Magic, created to boost Black
girl's self esteem, has been twisted to justify their exploitation.
Lawson coherently explains the wrongness of all this and why
Black girls and women deserve to be lead characters, not caricatures,
in life.
On a purrrsonal note, you want to know something else that is MAJOR?
UMaine has just earned a R1 Carnagie Classification. Only 3.7% of
colleges and universities are in this top tier of higher education
research institutions. There was a special reception to celebrate.
(Jules)
No tuna? No nip? People don't know how to celebrate. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Black Bear Nation because we're R1!!!
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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