"The Skin We Speak" by Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

At the Teacher-to-Teacher NYC Writing project conference, Kylene Beers spoke about literacy being more about power and privilege rather than reading and writing.  Joanne Kilgour Dowdy shares this sentiment, as she writes about her learning Standard English being a form of oppression for her and her family from Trinidad.  This feeling runs deep, and goes back to her Trinidadian people being enslaved by their British colonizers.  Despite this, her mother was insistent that she learn Standard English.  Her reaction was raw, "If it means forgetting that the language of everyone else around you bears witness to two hundred years of cross-pollination, so be it." As Ms. Dowdy grew up, she found her own voice, and stopped hiding behind a language she felt didn't represent her, "The chains fell from around my tongue, and my brain began to feel as if it were oiled and moving along without hiccups."  By growing up, becoming her own person, being in the public eye, and being able to express herself in a way that felt natural, Ms. Dowdy was able to feel empowered by the language.  The chains of oppression, from her language, her family, and her history, have loosened slightly, and she has come into her own.