In April, Americans from all walks of life gathered in Philadelphia to answer the nation’s first peacetime bipartisan “call.”
Christened “America’s Promise,” the event explored the myriad components of American volunteerism and their connection to curing the country’s social ills. Not surprisingly, mentoring was a word on most of the lips of the participants. Indeed, if there was an overriding consensus, it was that Americans must mobilize to mentor the nation’s youth. However, the question plaguing both delegates and concerned observers was, “How do we do it?”
While child advocates continue to seek answers to this question in the conference’s aftermath, many African Americans are grappling with other issues in addition to this one. Aghast at the crises in our communities, concerned Blacks are simultaneously wondering how to stem the growing tide of violence, academic under-achievement, economic disparity, joblessness, teen pregnancy and devaluation of human life. They reasonably muse that if mentoring is part of the remedy, what should its components be?
It is against this backdrop that Sister Power: How Phenomenal Black Women Are Rising to the Top has assumed a new importance.
Originally deemed a study of the leadership models ascribed to by powerful and successful Black women, the book’s primary audience was assumed to be aspiring Black women seeking to navigate the inevitable workplace confrontations with racism and sexism.
Dubbed “Phenomenal Women” by Richard Stockton College author Dr. Patricia Reid-Merritt, the book is based on interviews with forty-five powerful Black women. Ranging in age between thirty-three and sixty-eight, they hailed from every part of the country and worked in both the public and private sectors. This heterogeneous group of highly motivated women ran the gamut from grassroots activists to those with extensive post-graduate training. Yet despite these differences, the author found that the women shared seven common characteristics which, she asserts, collectively constitute the “sister power” to which she attributes the womens’ successes.
The seven characteristics common to all of the women are: a self-confidence engendered during childhood by family, church, school and community; spirituality; clearly defined goals; cultural pride; humanistic values; social consciousness; and political sophistication. Also, all were pioneers. Having no role models, they forged their own paths.
Reid-Merritt notes that the confluence of two forces – a supremely positive childhood preparation swirling against a devastatingly negative tide of racism and sexism – created a mind-set that, for some, would eventually develop into a new vision of leadership strong enough to surmount almost every obstacle. In a racist, sexist society, they believed they could and should operate at the highest level.
The book’s often witty conversational tone enhances biographical anecdotes replete with accounts of adults who continually affirmed and encouraged the endeavors of little Black girls. Early on, all of these talkative children were told that they were smart, loved and able. Intellectually, the sky was the limit!
It is these childhood memories that those designing mentoring programs should probably reference. For as community activists, educators, and parents are seeking answers, Reid-Merritt – perhaps unwittingly – offers one. By illuminating how crucial adult involvement and encouragement were to each woman’s success, she underscores the importance of positive reinforcement from the network of communities to which a child belongs. Every interviewee acknowledged teachers, family members, members of her faith community, and adult leaders of her extra-curricular activities who said, “You can do it!” In today’s jargon, they would be identified as role models and/or mentors.
Reid-Merritt’s engaging and exceptionally readable account of her interviews with these powerful Black women could be tremendously valuable to varied audiences – those designing mentoring programs for Black youth, especially for Black women; employees of “special” enrichment, or honors, programs for minority college students; and people designing community-based initiatives for younger children. Moreover, Sister Power could constitute equally important assigned reading for students enrolled in mentoring programs, as well as participants in community service initiatives. Lastly, the book would immeasurably enrich courses in which future teachers and health and human services professionals are enrolled.
An encouraging aspect of the book is the discovery that although “some sisters clearly put individual gain and personal aggrandizement before the welfare of the African American community,” they comprised only 15 percent of those studied. Thus, the overwhelming majority of the women had analogous childhood and young adult experiences that reinforce many of the values that the proposed mentoring programs seek to restore.
The importance of learning and celebrating Black history is a theme that resonates throughout the book. All of the “sisters” recalled how the history of Africana people had been taught to them as children. As a result, they revere its importance. Consequently, the interviewees repeatedly attributed their personal success to the sacrifices and accomplishments of Blacks of earlier generations. It is therefore ironic that the author’s own tributes to “the ancestors,” are problematic.
Reid-Merritt devised a style that skillfully meshes interview excerpts, folksy biographical anecdotes, and historical narrative. Unfortunately, neither she nor her editors picked up some rather glaring factual inaccuracies. An interviewee’s misidentification of the late renowned African American historian Nathan Huggins as white went uncorrected. Nevertheless, the historical inaccuracies do not invalidate the book’s overall usefulness in many different disciplines.
To the author’s credit, Sister Power’s content is organized chronologically, rather than biograpically. Accordingly, the book lends itself to assorted instructional and self-help formats.
Thankfully, Sister Power: How Phenomenal Black Women Are Rising to the Top is devoid of the psycho-babble and jargon that mar so many of the current spate of self-help and social science books. Reid-Merritt offers her readers a text whose skillful interplay of interview excerpts, “sisterspeak,” and history and statistical data is exceptionally readable.
Dr. Gloria Harper Dickinson is a member of the Department of African American Studies at the College of New Jersey in Trenton.
COPYRIGHT 1997 Cox, Matthews & Associates
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment
Name *
Email *
Website
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.